The night brought more dreams. She dreamed of Snoke, who seemed to have strung puppet strings from her, and he moved her in ways she couldn't expect or even know. She dreamed of Ren, though he was a lost thing, shadowy and untouchable, only their at the corners of her version. Maybe Snoke was responsible for these dreams, but they seemed human in nature - the side effect of too much anxiety and a feeling of having lost control.

Amalia had left her in Ren's apartment with the information that she had something to deal with. They didn't get a chance to talk about what she had found out at the party, so the entire event now felt completely fruitless. Rey had never asked what the woman did for a living, if anything, but she found the apartment much more lonely without her. Even hearing her music through the walls was a comfort, but now the place was silent. Her senses were more alert than they had ever been, and when she felt something shift in the darkness, she was quick to get out of Ren's empty bed. Her first thought was always that it was him, but when she reached out into the dark she found that there was nothing there that was comforting.

She moved silently out into the hallway, only to be accosted by light when someone flicked the switch on. She stumbled backwards when she realized who it was. Her first thought to escape him was to get back into the bedroom, but her legs suddenly felt as if they were encased in ice and she couldn't move. She was forced to turn and face him, full on.

He looked younger, somehow, as if ingesting her blood had made him younger. He was still no spring chicken, but he looked like a less devastating crater, at least. He seemed less mad, as if his mind had been steadied somehow. The effect might not have been long lasting, but he didn't accost her with his strange sayings and eerie laughter just yet. She struggled against the feeling of stasis, though she realized it was a direct effect of Snoke, the vampire who was standing in front of her. They didn't talk, Rey just kept trying to break free of him, but she realized that the smirk grew on his features the more she struggled.

"You thought I wouldn't come for you?" He asked, his voice a hiss.

"I don't know," She said, quietly. "Let me go,"

"No," He said. "You'll come with me,"

To her horror, she began moving forward. She had no intent to do so, but her movements were against her. He was controlling her. It was like Ren had said, the closer he got, the easier it would be. She couldn't imagine why he had bothered with her, but there was a small thought in the back of her head: what was she? She could still walk in the sunlight, but now that he'd turned her it seemed she was still dependent on blood.

When she took a few steps forward, against her will, she saw that Snoke had brought a group of vampires with him. She sucked in air when she recognized Ren, standing among his rank of vampires. She looked confused, and hurt, and she wanted to speak his name, but something was preventing her from doing so. She had the horrible realization that he might have been in on this all along, and she felt her heart shatter into a million tiny little pieces (again). She wanted to cry, but she wasn't in possession of herself at that very moment. She felt the cold chill of Snoke's influence sliding along her flesh like a cool snake. She wished she could shake him off, but the more she fought him, the more exhausted she got.

"Contain her," Snoke said, as if he were handling something that might explode with a moment's notice.

It was Ren that stepped forward. He had something in his hand, and she recognized the viper-like binds that had kept Rose. She wanted to scream at him, but all she could do was look at him. He looked better than he ever had. His hair was blacker than the night itself, glittering with a shine that she was sure someone in a hair ad would be envious of. His eyes were nearly black, and she looked for that telltale red pinprick there, but could find nothing. His skin was fine alabaster, but even so, she could see the remnants of the scarring on his face. Somehow, Snoke had kept him alive, but for what reason she didn't know.

She felt the tears rolling down her face, though she couldn't put word to her emotions. Snoke had choked the words off at the source, and all she could do was cry silently and look at him with a glassy, fierce gaze. She was promising herself that she would kill him. If she ever got out of this, she would make sure the job was done herself. She wondered if Amalia had been in on it too, but she had a hard time believing the woman would even help her at all if there wasn't some thought that she was also helping Ren.

And there he stood, looking as if he'd been painted in the heavens and put to life by some artists' thoughtful hand.

She really wanted to hate him.

And yet, when he drew nearer, she felt that inexplicable pull she always felt. She wanted to throw herself around his neck and ask him why he hadn't come back, why he had allowed the farce to go on for so long. Snoke seemed to be enjoying the show, a grin settled on his face as he seemed to be reading her every thought.

"Silly girl," He said. "He's my creature, now," Ren clamped the bind around her wrists, and she felt them tighten. "Would be much easier if you didn't fight me," He hemmed. "Then you could have what you want. We could all have what we want,"

Rey looked at him, and he pointed at Ren. She wasn't sure she wanted him, any longer. There was a small voice in the back of her head that called her a liar, and she knew she was lying to herself. She did want him. She wasn't sure that she hadn't wanted him from the first moment she had laid eyes on him. She hated herself for it, she hated herself for having let it go on for as long as she had.

She wasn't sure that walking away from him had even been an option, however.

Snoke released his ugly tendrils of intent from her body and she felt weak, and Ren came forward and caught her before she had a chance to fall. He lifted her up as if she was nothing at all, though she wasn't surprised. He seemed twice as strong and vibrant as he had before, and she knew he had been powerful before. She wondered what kept him from tearing Snoke's head off, but she could only guess that it was the same thing that kept her in his sway.

Had he saved them both, just so that he could control them? Did it work that way, when someone was already a vampire?

Rey was treated comfortably, though Ren didn't look at her the entire time he carried her out of the apartment. She studied his features freely, though he never looked back at her. She felt, with painful clarity, that the connection between them had been severed. She reached out as she had before, trying to find some semblance of what was there before, and she was met with only static and noise. The last time she saw him was when he was depositing her into the trunk of a car, and slamming it shut.

Then, there was only darkness, and the faint smell of gasoline.

Snoke's 'house' was in the hills. It was a long drive, and by the time Ren pulled her out of the trunk, she was feeling a bit like a pretzel who had been folded up. Her body wasn't sore, as she was expecting, but she felt the discomfort of it anyway. She was lead, by her own volition, up a winding path and into a house that gave the Winchester mystery mansion a run for it's money. There were twisting halls, doors that went nowhere, doors at the end of stair cases that one would have to fall into to get through. Then, there were the 'others', the humans that had come here worshiping some false God, IE, Snoke. They were mad, driven mad by vampire blood and whatever else. Some of them were outright aggressive, hidden away in the depths of his home like rats that had yet to be exterminated.

Rey was sure that if Hell existed, this must be a circle of it.

She was shown into a room that was slowly being taken over by decay, and mis-care. It must have been a nice place once, but now, it had the stink of something evil, something infected. She was shown to a room. Rey felt dirty just standing in it. There was a heart shaped bed that someone had probably lifted from a dump day, and over it hung a canopy of torn fabric. She wondered if it was the best he had to offer.

There was someone at the door, but it wasn't Ren. She didn't know how she knew, but she suddenly became aware of a whole bevy of sounds and noises she hadn't known about before. She could hear an occasional thought drift through from one of the human 'pets' Snoke kept. She wondered how long he meant to keep her there. She felt that same power curling up from the depths of her belly, and she wondered if she could call on it. She focused all of her energy on it, that faint whisper of what she'd felt before, and she realized she could see beyond the walls. She saw each guard, each strange human. When she reached far, she could see Snoke and Ren. They were talking to one another, but she couldn't hear what they were saying.

A noise drew her away, back into the room where she was currently sitting. There was a man, standing in front of her. He tossed a white, linen shift at her.

"Master wants you to wear this," He said in a hiss, and she leveled her gaze at him.

She wasn't going to wear anything but what she was wearing. And she was angry enough that she would not allow herself to be bullied. The fear that she'd relied on so heavily in the past few weeks seemed to have left her, and she was curious to find out just how far this new ability of hers went. If Ren didn't want to be rescued, she was decided that she would leave him here to rot with Snoke, no matter how many goons they sent after her. She felt it lash out like a scorpion stinging, and it took whatever form her rage intended. The vampire in front of her stood little chance against it, he was obliterated into nothing but a skeleton and ash when she finally was able to set it loose.

She felt the blow back of it immensely, though instead of feeling exhausted, she simply felt exhilarated. She felt a small twinge of guilt, but she couldn't stay here. She wouldn't stay here. The burst of power did not go unnoticed, as Snoke and Ren were suddenly at the door. Snoke looked bemused, and Ren looked aloof.

She wondered if she could obliterate him too, but when she began to call on the strange new energy, Snoke stifled it. He twisted her down into a smaller version of herself, causing pain to shoot up along her entire body until she was writing and screaming on the floor. He seemed to get enjoyment from it, and he might have continued to do it if Ren hadn't stayed his hand.

She wondered if he'd done it because he still cared for her, or if her purpose to them was just that important.

"I won't kill you," He whispered. "Not yet. You're too precious," He seethed. "Your blood will make mine more powerful," He hacked out a cackle.

She felt the pain abate as Snoke left her, but she realized that Ren was still standing there. When he leaned down, she pulled away from him instinctively.

"Don't touch me," She said, her voice weak. She wasn't sure she sounded like she meant it. "Have you known about this all along?"

She waited for a reply, but he didn't give one. She looked at him, and his eyes were wide, and open. He shook his head, but his mouth remained a straight line. She watched him curiously, wondering why he didn't speak. She thought he hadn't ever been afraid of responding to her. It then occurred to her that he couldn't respond to her. She watched him as he tried, but no words were formed.

She watched him, drawing herself into a sitting position. She thought he wanted to tell her something, anything, but nothing came. The look in his eyes was hard to decipher, but she knew that he hadn't known she was alive, up until that very night. She wondered if this Ren was aware of the strange dream he'd given her. It appeared that Snoke had the very same level of control over him as he did over her, perhaps more so. He leaned in, his hands on either side of her face before he kissed her. He drew the wind from her sails and the air from her lungs, and she gave into it, despite the firm thought that she would not. She couldn't help herself, all she wanted was to carry the both of them far away from here.

Something changed, and he went lax. She pulled back from the kiss to find that he was no longer there, his eyes a muted brown that didn't seem to see anything at all. He was no longer home, she thought. She watched him stand upright, and leave her there. She was to be guarded, but she wasn't to be free. The guards at the door came in, and after a scuffle, bound her in those same ropes that Rose had been bound in. If she didn't get out of them, they'd kill her.

She sat in silence, trying to clear her mind enough to make a plan to get herself out of there.

Rey spent the day counting. She counted how many bodies there were. She counted the rooms between her and Snoke. She wondered at sneaking out. She wondered at taking all of them out in a blaze of glory. She wondered if she could manage it. When night fell again, Snoke came back, whispering vile nothings into her ear and making her stand up, and dress herself in the simple white shift. He watched her, which felt much more like a violation than anything else she had felt thus far, though his intrusion into her thoughts was rape enough. Ren stood by his side, a doll to his whims. He didn't look at her.

She was forcibly removed from the room, and dragged along at his side, some sick and mocking display of a king with his queen. Rey was lead into a room that looked like it had originally been meant for business conferences. It was covered in gray carpeting, and gray chairs were tossed askew, and she wondered at it. She almost laughed, thinking it was amusing that he should do whatever nefarious deeds he intended from an entirely bland looking conference room that had likely seen a number of 'continental' breakfasts.

Rey was forced to stand at the head of the room, beside Snoke. The room filled quickly, the stench of unwashed humans and carrion vampires almost choking. Snoke spoke to them in the manner of a cult leader. He promised that they would have all that they wanted, though Rey could only guess that what had brought them here was a need to belong. She doubted that they had guessed at the horrors beyond. He promised that they had found of their answers in her.

She wondered if he wasn't about to sacrifice her to the crowd. She was dragged forward, and she felt that pull of his stasis on her as surely as she felt the breeze on her skin. She watched as Ren pulled a sharp, long needle from somewhere on his person. It was confusing. He grasped her hand, and drove the needle into the soft pad of her finger. There, a simple drop of blood.

"Who will come first?"

She watched as a young woman came up to her. Her hand was forced out, presented to the woman. She reminded Rey of Hilda, that same, mad energy. She wondered if they were all a product of Snoke, getting more insane as his blood got weaker. She watched as the girl drew the drop of blood on her fingertip away from Rey's finger. She seemed to exalt it, but finally, she placed it to her lips. Rey watched as her eyes turned black. The madness was gone, and replacing it was strength, and fire. She began to realize what he intended to do with her.

Was this how he was to fortify his "troops"?

The day got much longer as her finger was pricked, over and over again. They never seemed to end, he had a bevy of followers who were simply looking for a drop of blood. She had a sinking feeling that it wouldn't always be enough. He kept her in stasis through the entirety of it, but a strange thing happened as the day waned. It seemed as if he lost his grip on her, the strength of his intention seemed to get weaker the more that this went on. She felt the movement return to her limbs, though she stayed still. She didn't want him to realize he was slipping. His hold on Ren slipped too, and she could see in his eyes that he was now aware of what he was doing. Every time he pricked her, there seemed to be an apology there that he could not speak.

Finally, it ended.

And when it ended, Snoke's words were dire and strange: Take the tower.

And suddenly, the room was empty, but for the three of them and the few remaining goons he set up as his apparent security detail.

She was returned to her room, thrown into it as if she were nothing more than a blood bag, meant to give strength to mad vampires and addicted humans. She felt thoroughly used up, though she felt strange when she looked down to her finger to find that it had healed over with no sign of having been assaulted over and over again. Rey could not have lost much blood, but she found herself exhausted. The thought of sleeping on the heart shaped bed made her skin crawl, so she put her own clothes back on and curled up in a corner of the room. At least there she might avoid whatever was hiding in the mattress for a time. Her mind fought sleep, but she was too exhausted to do much else.

When she woke up, it was in the warmth of a bed that was far more comfortable than the floor of a strange mansion. It was Ren's bed. She felt the sheets, warmed against her skin, and she peered up to find the sunlight streaming into the room. She lifted her head, still heavy with sleep, and found the expanse of Ren's back turned to her. The sunlight had warmed his skin, and he didn't seem to be melting away into ash. She traced the lines of his back, finding it was free of scars. He seemed to be sporting a bit of a tan, in fact. She pressed herself against the sun warmed skin of his back, though it was brief. He shifted, taking a moment to draw her up into his arms.

He smelled different, like sleep and human, a smell she could honestly never say she'd gotten from him. This was a Ren she didn't know, and yet they knew each other quite intimately. She could feel her own heart beat thudding away in her chest as she tried to wipe the sleep away from her mind, though it was hard when everything was so warm and welcoming.

There were things she had to ask him, things she needed to know, but they drifted from her consciousness as if they were never there at all. It was oh-so-easy to get lost in the seductive peril of this display, it was what she wanted, after all. Finally, she heard the deep rumblings of his voice, and she felt her mouth quirk up with a small smile. It was a sound she missed, but she couldn't remember why she'd missed it so desperately. It seemed stupid, now.

"Coffee?"

"I'll make it," She said. "You're terrible at it," She was playful then, and she heard the husky laugh that erupted from him.

"I'm not," He said, though he didn't fight her as she squirmed her way out of his arms.

She slid a robe on over her bare shoulders, tying it at the waist. She knew he was watching her, and she drew her hair over to one side before smirking back at him, enjoying the languid way he reposed in bed. She left him behind, suddenly feeling as if they had all of the time in the world to be just as they were then. She was forgetting something, she was sure of it. It slipped further and further from her mind as she went about the task of making coffee.

She thought about breakfast, and though there was a brief moment of hesitation that crossed her thoughts, she continued on with what felt like a normal routine. It was inertia, carrying her on, even if something about it felt wrong. She cracked eggs, scrambled them and drank coffee. She looked at the paper, unsure if she could really read any of the words that were presented therein. When she turned, she saw him standing in the entry way in his navy blue suit. She smiled, though it was bittersweet.

"Where are you going?" She asked, taking another sip of coffee.

"I have to go," He said, already prepared to pepper her with apologies and promises.

"I made breakfast," She said, a pout on her lips.

She stepped close to him, smoothing the lapels on his jacket, looking up to him. He looked down at her, a smile on his lips. She leaned up, kissing him. He kissed her back, and she pulled at the lapels of his coat, trying to trap him in a web so that he couldn't leave. She pulled him down, and he slid his arms around her, knocking the scanty robe askew. He pulled back, drawing in a shaky breath of air.

"You are clever," He said. "But I still have to go to work,"

She smiled, and though she wanted to defy him, she let him go. She watched as he grabbed a piece of paper, scribbling something there and folding it up. He poured himself a cup of coffee and ate what he could, and when he stood close to her he slid the note into the pocket of her robe. He gave her another kiss before he disappeared, leaving her behind in the strangely sunny kitchen.

When he was gone, she pulled the note from her pocket. The handwriting was stilted, as if it had been painful for him to try and attempt it. It read:

Snoke sleeps before sunrise. Try and find me. I need your help.

Rey woke with a sharp breath of air, and all of the scents and sounds of Snoke's horrible house came rushing in. The dream had been just that, a dream. But Ren had left her a message, and that meant that she needed to have a plan.

sorreee this took me so long. there's a lot of horribleness here, but there is also some fluff. i hope you enjoy the fluff. if this has gotten crazy it is because i am crazy. didn't you know that when you started reading this WEIRD STORY?!