Chapter 8: Welcome to Dark Haven
Stella:
My vision swam. My thoughts tumbled in my head. A dense fog clouded my senses. Voices sounded far away. My sight was not yet clear.
A man's face conquered my imagination. Porcelain skin. Hair that shone a sunshine gold. He had the same predatory red eyes as my tormentor and yet…I was not afraid. His eyes were somehow different. His eyes seemed gentile…peaceful…sad. I remember he said that I was safe and I completely believed him, despite what he was. He sucked in a breath, held it, then his lips parted slowly. A smoky blue fog seeped from his cracked lips. It encircled me, filled me. It smelled of honeysuckle. I tasted the sweet tartness of pomegranate on my tongue. The man drew closer and kissed me. I felt him breathe the strange breath into me. As we shared this breath, I was suddenly reminded of the story of man's creation from Sunday school. God formed man from the dust of the earth, and breathed the breath of life into him; and man became a living being. This man lulled me to sleep with his breath and I felt no more pain, I no longer dreaded death or worried for my family. I was at peace.
Now I slowly awakened. The dreamless sleep left me. I was no longer in pain, but my anxiousness for my family and loved ones rushed back to the forefront of my mind. It made my heart ache. I wanted to scream out for the mysterious man from before, so that he could send me back into my dream of nothingness. How I wanted that peace!
I blinked against the glaring light above me. Shaking, I pulled myself up into a sitting position on the hospital type bed I'd been laying on. The room around me reminded me of the nurses office back at Bloom High.
The room smelled like disinfectant. I used to wrinkle my nose whenever I entered a hospital, but now I took in the tainted air in gulps. To me, who'd been locked away in a butcher's house for who knows how long, the air was as sweet as roses.
As I breathed in slowly, I suddenly realized that my arms were working again. I looked them over . They were fine. Completely fine, aside from some faint scarring from the Vampire's bite marks. I had the eerie feeling that, like the scars he'd left on my soul, these scars too would never fully heal. "What the…" I gasped, unable to contain my dismay. I thought for sure that my arms were dead. They'd been dislocated for far too long.
"Oh good you're awake, sleepy head." Greeted a cheerful voice.
My eyes darted towards the doorway, where a woman in a white coat stood, balancing a tray holding an enormous cinnamon roll in one hand.
"You couldn't have picked a better day. Today's cinnamon roll day in the cafeteria." She giggled. Her laugh was like the tinkling of wind chimes.
I stared at her in a mute daze, unable to look away from her red eyes. Another one? Would this nightmare never end?
As if she knew what I was thinking, she placed the tray down on her desk in the corner, and approached me slowly with a friendly expression on her pretty face. "I'm sorry, Ms. Rossi, I forgot my shades in my car this morning. There's no need to fear me. You're safe."
"Get away from me!" I hissed at her, scrambling to the far side of the bed.
"Now, Stella. Don't be like that. I'm not the enemy here. I'm the one that healed your arms."
I swallowed a deep breath and studied her face. Here eyes reminded me of the man who'd saved me. They were gentile and calm, but there was no sadness, just an eerie power that unnerved me.
"Your eyes…you're like him aren't you?" I stuttered.
"No I'm not. I am a vampire, but that does not make me like him. I'm on your side, Stella. We all are. Nobody's going to hurt you." She replied calmly.
"You all are?" I prodded.
"Everyone who works for the Vampire Victim Protection Agency are vampires, Stella. We are all conformists. We abide by laws that have been set by both human and our own governments. We do not attack humans. The vampire that attacked you was a rogue, a criminal. Our job is to protect humans from rogues. You are under no threat from us." She explained.
"Whatever you say, doc." I replied, sarcastically. "So how did you fix my arms?" I asked.
"Easy. I injected a small amount of vampire blood into each arm. Vampire blood and saliva holds healing properties that allows us to heal wounds and regenerate whole body parts. It works wonders on humans as well."
"You did what?! Won't that turn me or something?!" I panicked. I ran my tongue quickly over my teeth. Funny. My canines didn't feel any sharper.
The blond beauty shook her head with a smirk. "You've been reading too many teen vampire novels." She chuckled. "Turning someone isn't quite that easy. If it were, we'd outnumber humans 1,000 to 1."
I let out a huge sigh of relief. "So I'm okay?"
"Yep. You're perfectly normal." She replied with a smile.
"That's good. So when can I go home?"
The doctor's eyes turned sad. She stalled a moment before replying, "I'm not sure. It depends on how long it takes the agents to find Ezra Shade."
My eyes widened as the name left her lips. "E-Ezra S-Shade." I stuttered, "Is that who took me?" I asked, my brain reeling.
The woman nodded.
I couldn't believe I'd been that blind. How could I not have recognized him? I remembered him now. A couple of years back, a young man, maybe in his early twenties, has moved into a rundown old house just down the street from my bus stop. I remembered that he'd seemed pretty nice and was well…I have to admit, cute. I had thought it was strange that he was wearing jeans, a sweatshirt, a baseball cap, and a pair of shades in early May when the temperatures can exceed the 80's mark. He had dropped some boxes as he was carrying them in and I left my friends to help him carry them inside. He thanked me while we were inside and introduced himself as Ezra Shade. I realized with a sharp pain of horror in the pit of my stomach, that I'd been the one that had told him my name. Thinking back, I recalled how uneasy I had felt around him. Even though he was wearing sunglasses, I knew he was staring at me. I had gotten out of there as quickly as I could, saying that I was late for class. I saw him a few times after that, just standing out on his lawn in the morning. He'd wave at me every morning as I passed him, but then suddenly, after my dad was deployed to Iraq, all that stopped. I never saw him after that. That was until the day in the pool.
"I can't believe I didn't recognize him." I gasped, my body shaking with shock.
"Actually, it's not that unbelievable. Our kind are experts at blending into the crowd, going unnoticed. It's what has kept our species from going extinct all these millennia." The doctor chimed in. She laid a gentle hand on my shoulder. "You wait here, and I'll go get you some clothes. I hope you don't mind my hand-me-downs."
I shook my head, "No. That's fine. Thank you."
I watched her leave and waited patiently listening to her footsteps as they drew further and further away. When I could no longer hear their echo, I finally got up from the bed and hastily made my escape. Even if I couldn't go home, I could still at least reach a phone and let my mom know I was okay. I walked quickly down the hall. Paranoid, I kept glancing over my shoulder every two seconds, fearing that a red eyed monster would appear out of the many doorways that lined the hall at any moment.
As I rounded a corner, I heard a bell chime, and all at once, the doors swung open and a throng of the beasts came pouring out into the hallway. I whirled around in a daze, taking in the eerily placid faces with the burning eyes. Most of them passed me by as if they hadn't seen me, but others took the time to flash me a hungry glare. The horrid eyes staring back at me could not lie. They were all like him! Every last damn one!
I let out a high pitched shriek, and collapsed onto my knees on the cold floor. I covered my eyes with my hands, still screaming.
"Stella." Called a familiar female voice. I lowered my hands and stared up into the furious glare of the doctor. The red pigment of her eyes flashed to white. "Be Quiet." She said in a level voice. At once, my mouth shut and my screaming stalled in my throat. Her eyes still white, she said, "Go back to the infirmary and dress yourself. Do not move from that room until I return for you."
As if I no longer had free will I, my body at least, complied with her command. I kept screaming at my legs to stop inside my head, but they wouldn't listen. It was like I was a prisoner deep inside of myself. I was no longer in control of my bodily functions. She was. This must be the terrible power I had sensed when we'd first met. That terrifying energy which hid there in her crimson eyes.
Wild:
At the chime of the bell, which signified the end of the work day and the end of classes for the fledglings, I grabbed my things and went out into the main hall. A woman's shriek perked my keen ears. My eyes followed the sound to a young girl in a hospital gown screaming a the top of her lungs. I recognized the mane of wild, dark curls. Stella.
I was about to go calm her down, but I stopped when I saw Candy approach her. She could handle it. Candy is, after all, a Puppeteer. All vampires have the ability to hypnotize humans to get them to do what we want, but in Puppeteers this ability is taken to the extreme. They can actually manipulate humans, fellow vampires, and even objects with their minds, something like a mixture of mind control and telekinesis. Candy is exceptionally skilled. One look into Candy's white gaze, and the subject, Stella in this case, is helplessly under her control.
After she'd sent Stella back to the infirmary, I walked up behind her. "It scares me what you can do with that brain of yours." I teased.
She turned and smiled at me as her eyes slowly regained their color. "You have no idea." She chuckled, with just a tint of darkness. "Skulls seems to enjoy it though." She added with a chuckle.
"Eww." I muttered. "Haven't I told you a thousand times that I don't want to know what goes on in you and Skulls' sex life. It makes me want to puke."
"I know, but I love seeing that look on your face. It's priceless!" She jabbed with a haughty laugh.
"You're evil, Candy." I grumbled.
"Just a little." She replied with a wink.
Author's Note- This was sort of a short chapter, but I really liked it. The banter between Candy and Wild at the end was especially fun. XD Thanks to all who have enjoyed the story this far!