Chapter Ten
Non-hero Hero
I had to use the bathroom. Really bad. But I didn't want to move from my spot under the bed. I felt safer, less connected to the world right here. Still, the bathroom door stood half open in taunting. I didn't want to see myself in the mirror, either. But I reeeeaaalllly had to go. I'll just have to hold it. I could get bladder infection. Worth it. What if becoming sick would just prompt Evanen to just finish me off? Worth it. So I merely held my legs crossed and held my breath, not moving from my spot under my bed.
I heard the lock to the door click, and so I wasn't startled when it opened, merely confused as to why it bursted open so. But then I saw the feet of Evanen walk to the bed and drop something on top of it. I didn't move from my spot. So Evanen paused in what seemed like a sudden confusion. And then he dropped to the floor and I saw his face looking at me through the darkness. His eyes had a sharp, blue film over them, reminding me of a cats eyes in the black of the night... except a different color.
"What are you doing under here," He asked in amusement.
"I thought I saw a penny," I lied sarcastically.
"I'll give you a penny if you get out from there. I have something here for you." And his head disappeared from the darkness. I sighed, shoving myself out from under the bed. Evanen was looking around, smirking as though enjoying a mental thought in his head. "Looks like you got bored." And I followed his gaze. His room was officially neat and orderly, yet still held the style of emo boy. I had merely picked up all his clothes and stuck them in a basket in the corner, along with folding some that seemed perfectly clean and hanging up some others. You could actually see the floor.
I shrugged. "What did you want to..." And I looked at the bed. There was four large bags of what looked like clothing and some other things on the bed, one being spilled over with a couple of pants falling out.
"Oh, yeah. The first night I brought you here, I figured you might need more things in the long run. Looked at the tags on your shirt and pants... and other things," He seemed to trail off, and I felt a sudden rush of embarrassment.
"You what," I growled.
"Anyways, I bought you some clothes and a new pair of shoes to replace the ones we lost on your way here," Actually, I only lost one, but what is a person going to do with one shoe? And he started dumping the bags on the bed. "Along with girly things like special shampoos, conditioner, and soap... brushes, deodorant, perfume, makeup..." He picked up a box of tampons. "Get the picture?" He dropped the box. "So have fun doing what you do when your bored." And he disappeared out of the room. That wasn't uncomfortable at all... eh.
At least I felt inspired now. I wasn't going to feel like a rat forever! And I started sorting through the pile of stuff on the bed, separating the shirts from the pants, and putting the underwear, bras, and socks together. Evanen had a couple of empty drawers, where I put my clothes. And then I grabbed the rest of the so-called "girly" things - along with a full change of an outfit - , put them in a bag, and moved into the bathroom. There wasn't much things in the bathroom, and I began to wonder if vampires had to take a lot of showers. But I placed everything from my bag in there, and shut the bathroom door before getting to work on myself.
It felt better to be clean. It annoyed me to wear the same thing for up to three days, and so when I changed into a new pair of jeans and a tanktop, I felt much better. Especially after a shower. And I had to tackle my hair, but soon I uncovered the ponytail holder. That wasn't the least of it. I had to brush the bottom half below my ponytail holder out the best I could just so I could get it off. Ultimately, I had to break the holder itself so that I could brush my hair out, but it was a satisfying ending when my hair was back to being normal. And the shower had finished it off by getting rid of the massive oil-ness of it. Soon the only thing I had to do was put on deodorant - not the perfume because I'm not a perfume fan - and... of course I had to apply eyeliner that merely shaped my eye rather than made me look dead tired.
I put on the new shoes, and they fit... which was expecting seeing as Evanen probably just looked at the size on the loner shoe. Now I was ready to just head over back home. Yeah, right. I jumped when there was a sudden knocking on the bathroom door.
"You finished yet," Evanen's voice called.
I opened the door and greeted him. "Happy?" And I smiled at the flash of startlement on his face. I guess he thought I was going to hide inside the bathroom forever.
He reached to me and traced his thumb on my cheek, wiping the smile off my face to a look of incertainty. "Much better," He responded, talking about my new look from trash to normal. He dropped his hand and moved towards the bedside table. "Does everything fit okay?"
"Just about perfectly," I admitted, moving to the edge of the bed to sit down. I felt comfortable now that I didn't feel like I was going to burst.
"Well, good," Evanen said, "I'm going to be gone for a little while. And I'll leave the door open as long as you don't try to escape the house. But you can go down to the kitchen and get something to eat... maybe explore around. As long as you don't go opening doors that are locked. Okay?" He moved towards the door.
I jumped up. "Wait. What? Why are you leaving?" Now, don't get me wrong. It's not that I'm going to miss him.
But Evanen looked amused at my sudden desperate appearance. "I'm a bit hungry myself, if you want to know."
"Well, you can't... don't leave me here," I said pathetically.
He turned completely toward me with a raised brow. "Would you prefer to come along?"
I hesitated. "No." And in a sudden move, he was just behind me, moving my hair away from my neck.
"Or would you like me to stay and satisfy my hunger with you," He asked slyly. I gulped, wincing in rememberance of the sharp pain of his fangs peircing my skin, as he breathed on my skin... waiting for my answer.
He certainly seemed okay with choosing to stay in sacrifice of my own blood. And I said in a whining voice, "But if you leave, one of them will get me." Evanen backed away automatically, now understanding what I meant by him staying. See, everyone in the house hates me, but they seem to stand me being here because Evanen was right there next to me to protect me from them. And with him gone for an extended amount of time, and my door wide open, what's to stop them from killing me off?
"They won't hurt you if you don't try to escape," He assured me uncertainly.
I scoffed, turning towards him. "And how are you to know if I was actually trying to run away?" And I crossed my arms determinely to wait for his answer. I was satisfied in his reaction, seeing as now he himself seemed unsure as to whether or not he should leave. I didn't want to go watch him kill someone else, nor did I want him to feed from me again. Yet I didn't want to be left alone. If only he could just starve.
"Okay," Evanen suddenly said in realization. I wasn't certain what that meant, but he suddenly led me out of the room. As we walked down the hall, he started knocking on random doors, and whenever Katha's head appeared from one, he said, "Follow me." And then he was continuing on his knocking until he found Mikel and Cecilian. When he had all of them - seeing as apparently Drewdon wasn't a problem - he turned, pulling me with him, to look at them all. Cecilian looked bothered, Katha angered, and Mikel stared at the ground almost guiltily.
"I'm leaving to feed and I'm leaving Hailence here until I come back," Evanen stated, and the only one to react was Katha, whose angry face suddenly looked hopeful. That caused Evanen to seem satisfied in his mental questioning. "That's what I thought. First of all, if I come back and Hail is dead or hurt in any way, you will regret it."
"What if she tries to escape," Katha asked, suddenly angry again.
Evanen scoffed, "Then grab her and keep her retained until I come back, and I'll see if I think she was actually trying to escape. And you know how well I can tell if someone is lying or not." Katha shut up at that explanation, apparently any plan in her head ruined.
Cecilian then cut in. "If she tries to escape, I'm going to kill her, whether you like it or not."
Evanen let go of my wrist and stepped in front of Cecilian with rage. "Do it and there will be no Rising." Cecilian's proud face broke down from pride to despair to rage all in one.
"She's affecting it, just like you promised she wouldn't," Cecilian yelled, enraged, pointing at me as if condemning me. I didn't feel comfortable anymore.
"No, you're affecting it," Evanen snarled, and stepped back, "And as for you..." He glared at Mikel, who seemed to be the only one not planning any type of secret killing in Evanen's absense. "She's not hurt, suffering, or dying in any way, so you better not lay a hand on her." I knew that Evanen didn't actually think Mikel would do anything, seeing as he had said so himself, but he was just making sure.
And Evanen seemed done. Then just before he led me off, he said, "And I said she could wander around here, including the kitchen, so that doesn't count as escaping. Don't try to retain her unless she's trying to go outside." And he started walking through the group with me following behind. Katha snapped at me as I passed, making me step back into Mikel, who seemed to jump back a mile at my touch. I was relatively relieved when I was out of their sight.
"What about Drewdon," I whispered to Evanen as he pulled me in front of his room door.
He shrugged. "I'm sure he heard everything that was said. And if you do run into him, it's best to just not make any sudden movements or noises. Try not to talk. And try to slowly back out of the room. He's like an animal, so it should work if he doesn't have any reason to think of eating you."
I gulped again in fear. "Really?"
Evanen smiled jokingly, "Actually, I'm just kidding... you shouldn't move at all." And he started off down the hall without me. I didn't know whether he was telling the truth or not, but either way, I felt as though I wasn't going to leave Evanen's room at all until he came back.
Two minutes later, I was sitting on the edge of the bed mumbling to myself. At first it was just a bunch of songs I was muttering lyrics of... Then my stomach growled and I was suddenly naming off a bunch of different foods that sounded good at the moment. And before I knew it, I was slowly creeping out of the bedroom door. Now, when I first got here, I was laying on top of the kitchen counter. I don't remember going upstairs to reach that kitchen counter, so it must be downstairs. I should be Sherlock Holmes' sidekick.
I spent a moment trying to remember which way Evanen had taken me to go to the garden, and started in that direction. And I must have good memory because the next thing I knew, I had found the top of the flight of stairs. I lightly placed my foot on the top one, but my memory isn't good enough so that I wouldn't make any noise on the way down. I gave up trying to step lightly, and started counting the steps instead. On the fifteenth step, I hit the first floor.
Not exactly sure which way the counter was... I moved to the left before turning back to go to the right of the stairs. Whichever way it was, I eventually circled around to find the now clear kitchen counter as opposed to my near-dead vision last time. But with the sight came Cecilian, who was perched on the edge of the counter, staring at the surface with annoyance. I just assumed she was wishing she had killed me when she had the chance.
Before I could back away quickly, Cecilian twisted her head sharply to peer at me before going back to staring at the counter. "Come on in, I'm sure you must be famished by now," she ordered in that over-powering voice once again. But it wasn't like that voice of Evanen's, which when ordered would somehow crawl into my thoughts and obsess over every single thought etched in my brain until I couldn't think of doing anything else except listening to it. Still, I decided she wouldn't do anything, and I made my way around her and towards the refridgerator tentively.
Just as I was about to pass her, Cecilian snatched my elbow with a death grip. I tried to pull my arm away, but she kept a firm grip, glaring at me with her cold, dark, blue eyes. "He'll get tired of you eventually," Cecilian said in that omniscent voice. "So don't try anything stupid while you are here. If you even think about destroying our plans for Evanen, I'll kill you. I don't care what he'll think. And it won't be a slow death. It'll come so quickly that you won't even know what hit you. Either way, you'll die; whether it's me who kills you or Evanen. But don't even think about trying to convince him to change you. Don't even think about it." Her grip was tightening so that I started clinching my jaw in pain, and I pulled at her hand inefficiently.
"FINE," I yelled, "I'm not even thinking about anything. I promise!" And she tightened her grip another notch before letting go completely. Well, here comes another bruise. Cecilian went back to glaring at the counter while I rubbed my elbow, begrudged. I continued to make distance between us as I headed towards the refridgerator. There's got to be sandwich meat or something here.
I started to straighten out my arm - failed to complete that because it hurt too much - and opened the refridgerator door. There seemed to be plenty of food to pick from, which is weird for a house with vampires in it. And before I could question it, Cecilian stated, "Evanen stocked it up for you." For a moment I wondered if she could read my mind, but then it couldn't be possible because she wouldn't have even thought that I'd be wanting to become a vampire freak. Truth be told, it may seem cool, but I prefer not to become another Mikel... which is probably what I would become because I don't do good when harming people. That's what I had Kyler for. Had. Never will have her for anything anymore.
With a sudden boiling rage that I had been trying to keep hidden - seeing as I was trying to keep on my best behavior in order to try to get sympathy to escape - I yanked the gallon of milk from the fridge. I felt like throwing it at Cecilian because she was completely stupid. Did she think I was here on my own free will? Trying to mingle with a vampire so I could become one? Or did she fail to notice that my entrance into this hellhole was nearly dead and bleeding? I'm not like her; searching the world for a way to immortality. I accepted death when I found out that out of all my illnesses, at least one would kill me before I hit age 35. At some point, you want to die when your body is trying so hard to get you to agree with it.
I opened the milk bottle - for some reason, Cecilian seemed to chuckle with pleasure - and I was about to take a drink out of it when I heard a dark voice behind me growl, "Don't drink from the bottle. Grab a glass." The sudden presense of someone I hadn't met yet had clearly left the name 'Drewdon' in my mind, and I lost muscle control in my hands, causing me to drop the milk as I turned around quickly. But before it hit the ground, the man, Drewdon, had snatched it from midair, keeping it from spilling a drop.
He placed it back on the counter. It was definitely Drewdon. He towered over me, being only an inch or two taller than Evanen himself. And his hair was a seeping black that crawled down his back. It wasn't up or anything, so it looked slightly creepy in a mass-killer-who-doesn't-groom type of way. Plus, his eyes were... yellow. Not a golden brown, but yellow. And it was creepy in its own way of how it seemed to glare with a certain animal effect. Still, to strike out his ungroomed hair, he was nicely dressed in a sort of business like tone. A creepy business like tone. But either way, I was frozen, not sure what to do. Evanen didn't exactly give a specific guide for this type of thing, and what tips he did give couldn't be trusted because of the unserious way he took the subject.
Drewdon reached out and grabbed my hand, opening it to drop the milk jug cap onto his own hand. His hand seemed warmer than Evanen's, but then again that didn't make me feel safer in his presense. But he let go, placing the cap back on the milk jug. "So who exactly is she, Cecil," Drewdon seemed to growl with distaste. Cecilian was watching the whole scenery with utter enjoyment.
"That'll be Evanen's new toy pet." She crossed her leg with expectation. I still stood still. I mean, I've been standing still and it's worked in not getting me killed so far... so something must be working.
"So close to The Rising," Drewdon asked, now sounding confused, "Why'd you let him keep one when you know what's coming up? Especially a female pet. Especially..." He glared at me in spectation. "Especially one he's using for company rather than enjoyable, long-term food." Glad I'm not the food type.
"He said she wouldn't affect it, but I thought that meant he was just using her for physical enjoyment. Apparently I was wrong, because he seems to being taking an unhealthy liking to it," Cecilian stated in displeasure, "Even awhile ago he threatened not to go through with his Rising because of her." Well, that's not exactly explaining the complete truth. And it hit me. Evanen had said that Drewdon would kill me as though he couldn't stop it from happening, even if it did. Which meant that there was one person that Evanen would probably have to obey... and that would be Drewdon. So Cecilian must have just noticed the idea of using Drewdon to kill me by telling him that I would interfere with that... Rising?... Which is the thing that all the vampires in this house obviously don't want to be interferred.
Drewdon seemed to be thinking, and I imagined a guy that came from the 1700s had a lot of experience to base his thoughts on. And he shook his head. "No, now isn't a good time for him to have a human around," He settled on, and I knew whether I moved or not he'd kill me. So I backed away, but he snatched my wrists.
"Can't you just let me go," I whined, automatically twisting my shoulders up to attempt to hide my neck as best as possible. Drewdon shook his head, annoyed at my plea. He can be annoyed all he wants, he's not the one about to be eaten by someone. "I won't interfere with any plans or anything. I just want to live. You're alive; you get it, right? You don't want to die right now, right? Well, it goes the same with me! I just want to go do my thing and you can do your own thing. I promise. I-"
"Be quiet," Drewdon ordered smoothly, and all thoughts were blocked from my head, leaving me with one that kept me from talking. It didn't keep me from thinking, and my heart started pounding as I struggled to pull my wrists out of Drewdon's hands. "Calm down." It wasn't like being paralyzed. It was more like being drugged. My heart slowed down against my will, and I didn't seem as afraid. Drewdon moved my hair from my shoulder, and pulled my tank top strap to the side to bare a spot of my shoulder that was next to the bite on my neck.
Just as Drewdon bent down to bite down on my shoulder, I was pulled painfully away from him, and suddenly Evanen was in front of me, growling in rage. Before Drewdon could say anything, Evanen hauled off and punched him on the side of the face. Apparently Evanen had some amazing strength he kept from me because Drewdon staggered back gripping his face with a stunned expression. It reminded me how Evanen had slapped Cecilian. Apparently he doesn't listen or obey Drewdon like I thought he did. Either way, Drewdon was pissed.
Drewdon towered in front of Evanen, who towered back without faltering. Drewdon didn't look stronger than Evanen at the moment, seeing as he had been the one who had been punched and was only an inch or two taller than Evanen himself. And without another word, Drewdon turned and stormed out of the room. That clearly left an air of a message of 'It's not over yet'. Cecilian looked shocked herself, obviously never thinking that Evanen would be back before Drewdon would kill me. She was out before anything could be said to her as well, and I was left behind Evanen, who was seeping with rage.
He turned to look at me, and I noticed a certain renewed appearance about him. It must be the fact that he had fed for sure. Still, it couldn't have been more than thirty minutes, which meant he was in a hurry about it. "Are you okay," Evanen asked, moving my tank top strap to look at my shoulder before putting it back and moving my hair over it with satisfaction.
I nodded, "Still hungry, though." I seemed a bit lost, as though I still thought that creepy Drewdon would come back in here any second. But Evanen was certainly my new non-hero hero. In that the only reason why he was my hero was because he wasn't my hero in the first place... seeing as he got me in this mess after all. Still, a hero in his own little way.