"Shit," I gasped as I retched over the toilet for the third time. Something in the coffee had definitely upset me. Perhaps the milk was bad; I didn't know.
I leaned over the bucket I used to wash my face and rinsed out my mouth before I could be tempted to throw up again. After that was done, I held my nose and gingerly inspected the mess in the toilet. Yes, it was definitely the coffee.
I flushed the disgusting stuff away and slouched back to my bed. In my absence, the warmth had completely evaporated and been replaced by the chill of an Alexandrian night. I climbed into bed and pulled the blankets close to me, shivering.
It took me a long time to fall asleep. Most of that time I spent thinking of Benjamin. Even as I thought of him, I felt warm all over. I tossed and turned, unable to drift off. Eventually, I kicked my covers off and curled up on my side. Slowly, I fell asleep…
When I woke up, it was six o'clock in the morning and I was half-frozen. I yanked the covers up to my chin and shivered there for some time. My teeth chattered with a sound like castanets. Soon, I decided that I needed a warm drink and I grudgingly got out of bed to make it.
Since I was a little girl, I had always loved tea. I had watched my mother make it over and over again and one day, I had tried myself. As I got older, I got better and better at making tea. I didn't like any form of cooking except brewing the tea leaves, letting the fragrant steam swirl into my face. Making tea brought a sense of warmth to me, a sense of familiarity.
Padding back to the bedroom, cup in hand, I pulled out a textbook and sat down to study. I was pursuing a career in architecture and I needed to study for an upcoming exam. But I couldn't concentrate. Every flicker of light, every shadow made me think of Raphael. Perhaps he was outside my window right now… knife in hand… ready to defile me…
I slapped myself. I shouldn't be thinking like that. I sipped some tea and then went to look in the mirror. Ouch. I had slapped myself so hard that a red mark was still on my cheek. Shaking my head at my own stupidity, I ambled back to the kitchen and wet a cloth with some cold water. I pressed it to my face. It eased the stinging a little. I groaned at the thought of the fat textbook which was lying on my bed. It didn't take much convincing to get me to turn in the opposite direction and head for my tiny living room. I pulled the door open and stepped inside.
And then I screamed.
It was the scene from my nightmares. Raphael stood in my living room, dripping with water and something that looked very much like blood. A knife in one hand, a terrible anger on his face. And Benjamin wasn't there to save me. I did the only thing that came naturally. I ran.
I was out of the door before Raphael could react. I darted out of my front door and out into the street. When I chanced a glance behind me, I quickly upped the speed; he was right behind me. My long skirt made it difficult to run and I was soon gasping for breath. No one was awake this early on a quiet and cold Saturday morning, so I had no chance of help from passers-by. Not that I'd ever gotten any in the past. I sped by shops and houses, my small slippers whacking against the ground. I decided they were slowing me down and I kicked them off. I ran faster now that my feet were free. If only I could get to Benjamin's house…
Halfway there, I was tired and my feet were hurting. A burning had begun in my muscles and I was out of breath. Raphael's footsteps sounded about four metres back. I didn't look behind me for fear of slowing down. To distract him, I snatched a bucket from a well I was passing and threw the water from it behind me. It met it's mark; I heard a splash and a snarl from behind me. Benjamin's door was right in front of me, one hundred metres away.
"Almost there," I gasped to myself. And then I felt Raphael's hand close around my wrist. He yanked me back and dragged me down an alley. I opened my mouth to scream, but his large, smelly hand descended and cut off my screech. I kicked out at him but my foot didn't connect with anything solid. He pinned me roughly against the crumbling alley wall and my head snapped back against the rock. There was a slash of pain, then I felt something warm trickling down my neck. I was too frightened and horrified to feel the pain which radiated from my head down my neck.
Raphael pulled out a knife.
He turned his back to me and leaned back, pressing me against the wall. Then he took my wrist and pressed the knife to the big vein there. A small drop of blood oozed out. Suddenly, with a sharp downward slash, he slit my wrist from one side to another. Blood sprayed from the wound, splattering both of us. Raphael bent close to the wound, and for one horrifying moment, I thought he was going to drink the red liquid running in streams down my arm. My wrist throbbed when he touched it, and the pain in my head flared at the same time. He finished prodding at my wrist and held something up to the dim light. A small bottle, filled with my blood.
"Just so I don't forget you," he explained in his raspy voice. "After I kill you. You've evaded me for too long and the chase has gotten tedious. I'm going to kill you now so that I don't have to chase you anymore. No, so that I don't want to chase you anymore."
"He'll – find – you," I gasped. The pain in my wrist was agonizing and I was feeling dizzy from blood loss. Smiling sadistically, Raphael slit my other wrist. The tears broke free and spilled down my cheeks. He brought the knife up to my forehead and cut a line across. Blood spilled into my eyes, blinding me. And the next thing I knew was a gentle pressure on my neck.
"Oh, I don't think so," Raphael said. "Should I kill you slowly, do you think, or quickly? This knife is very sharp – you saw how easily it cut your thin little wrists. One little flick and you would be dead. On the other hand, I could saw very gently. You would die gradually. What's our opinion, Tia?"
"I hate you, Raphael," I said through my teeth. I felt the walls of the alley closing in around me and a inhaled a choppy breath. These were my last few minutes of life. Benjamin couldn't save me now. He wasn't anywhere nearby.
As the knife passed gently across my throat for the first time, I thought of my parents. Both dead, from scarlet fever.
As the knife sawed through for the second time, I thought of my friends in college. Even though we weren't friendly anymore, I wished I had a chance to say goodbye.
When blood dripped down on the ground like scarlet ink, I knew the knife had passed for the third time.
And when the fourth cut was made, I thought of Benjamin. His mischievous, optimistic features, strong, sure, cold hands. The times he had saved me, over and over.
The last thing I heard was someone shouting my name. Through a veil of blood and tears, I watched Raphael's expression turn to fury. I heard the knife clatter to the alley floor.
And then I fell into a void.
The rest is silence.
Oh Isis, save me and guide me to a better place…
A/N: Yes, another late update. I sincerely hope I have some readers left!
Trust me, if you were seriously into vamp romances, you wouldn't have time for storywriting either. And I know that's not a good enough excuse. I'm sorry, I apologise from the bottom of my heart, all that. Oh yeah, and sorry I didn't have any review replies in the last chapter. This time, there WILL be some!
I have another point to make: if people are reading my story, why aren't they commenting? Good comments (and a lot of them) are healthy for the soul. Okay, that's a load of crap. But it would make me feel better in the midst of all this shit I'm in the middle of right now.
As usual, thanks, Mitali and Saloni for bugging me enough that I finally got off my ass and wrote the damn chapter.
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters! All the credit goes to Steph, for Bella, Edward and my two lovely mains, Benjamin and Tia.
new york gal: Thanks! I'm glad you liked the last chappie =D =D. Hope this one is worth it after this long wait!
Catriel: Yay, a new reader! Thanks - I'm flattered that you like it so much! And I loved your idea...it's saved me a lot of chewing on my lip and getting a crick in my neck staring at the screen, waiting for a spark of something. Hope you liked this new chappie!
'Twilight for eternity': Sorry, the update wasn't that ASAP! I have serious concentration issues. I'm just way obsessed with Internet surfing.