Once Whitmore has the shut firmly behind him Caroline turns her attention back to him, taking in his relaxed position with slight shock. "Do you know what he means?" She asks, voice barely above a whisper in her fear of the unknown.
He sighs, she really needs to stop wearing her heart on her sleeve. "You need to guard your heart better, or someone is going to steal it." He states, avoiding the question. He doesn't exactly know what's going to happen, but he has a pretty good idea after all the years he's spent here.
He watches as emotions cross her face, one after the other, starting with confusion from the sudden change in topic to a slight blush revealing how much he offended her.
Normally he enjoys ruffling her feathers, she's cute when she's mad, but today he's just not into it. She needs to learn this lesson, the world will take what's pure and taint it, until it's no longer recognizably. She opens her mouth, with probably a clever retort, but he speaks before a word can pass her pink lips, "Finish transcribing everything, the day will be a busy one." He even sounds tired to his own ears; tired of the pain, yet not ready to flip the switch.
Paul and Billy walk in before Caroline's finished, she pauses to smile at them. Their grim faces aren't a good sign, usually they will smile back and occasionally exchange small talk, but today they won't even look at her. Dread fills his veins, whatever has them so tense probably has to do with the torture he will experience.
He stands today, making direct eye contact with Billy, yet Billy can't meet his eyes. Paul can, he has always been able too, he justifies his lack of morals as a way to help the world. Billy accepts the bad he partakes in, knowing it's just a means to an ends. Their behavior only confirms the horrible reality of how human's rationalize their sins.
There's no taunting today, they get straight to business. He's on the floor and restrained before he thinks to look to Caroline to gauge her reaction.
He walks out the room, head held in pride even though he may be walking to his death. They pass the door he's entered everyday since he was dragged into this wretched building. His morbid curiosity takes over, he begins to pay more attention to his surroundings and the small changes in his captors.
The room they enter is much bigger than what he's used to. The focal point of the room is a tank, an empty tank made of glass to reveal what goes on inside. There are no windows to the outside world, causing him great disappointment.
Paul injects him with some vervain before drooping him into the tank. His body makes contact with the concrete floor of the 15 ft tank. He looks up, ignoring the way his bones burn, they shut him in. Water begins to pool around him as fear pools within him. They are going to drown him, take away a crucial piece of sanity; breath. Dr. Whitmore walks in moments later, a small smile on his face as he says something that can't be heard through the sound of rushing water and panes of glass. The water reaches his neck to fast, and soon he has to start treading water to keep his head above water. His head touches the top of the tank, and he takes a deep breath. He pushes against the top, straining his depleted strength, but not ready to give up yet.
He begins to thrash around the container as the water wraps around him, surrounding him in it's embrace as death comes. The water fills his lungs as his body forces him to breath, and no matter how hard he tries, it won't leave. His body heaves with the effort of trying to bring oxygen in and force water out. His fists pound against the glass, cracking the inner layer, but he feels the water flow in and out, taking his strength with him; and his strikes grow weaker. Black dots form, stealing his vision, and panic is overcoming every sense.
His body is soon peaceful, as he floats there with his tenuous grip on consciousness, his mind is full of terror as death comes to steal him from the world for a time. But he knows he will return, he always does no matter how much he wants to stay.
Pain shoots through his abdomen as is contracts to force the water out, forcing him awake. He sits up with vampire speed and coughs water, soon the coughs become more violent until he is vomiting water mixed with blood. Once his body has expelled the water he lies back down, the sudden strength that filled him just moments ago vanished. He takes painful breaths, his lungs ache from their forceful expansion of water. The act of ridding himself of the water leaves his abdomen, chest, and back sore.
Paul soon enters his line of sight and lifts him by his shoulders, someone lifts his legs, Billy he thinks. He briefly sees Caroline's distress, he shakes his head slightly, hoping she gets the message to not intervene. He then feels a split second of free fall before the water surrounds him once more.
Instead of fighting, this time he just lets the water wrap around him until he can no longer hold his breath. His body takes over and tries with all it's might to find air, but it's futile, and he is soon dying all over again. He looks out this time, finding a relaxed Dr. Whitmore, just observing like it's normal to watch people fight for their lives. Paul and Billy can't look, finding other things to occupy them. But Caroline, sweet Caroline, watches with horror. He's a train wreck she can't look away from. Death snatches him with the sight of Caroline's blue eyes filled with horror.
He finds the space between life and death vampires occupy once more, but this time it's in the water. As soon as the water is expelled from his body it enters once more, and his body does everything it can to find the air it so desperately craves. While his mind focuses on the panic, the panic that comes when realizing there is no more air, there is nothing but endless pain until your fade out of life and into death.
This continues on for hours, until Dr. Whitmore ends it. Paul and Billy wait until he dies once more before pulling him out of the tank to secure him. They drop him on their way to his cell as he begins to convulse as water is removed. He is gasping for air before they pick him up, they take care to not drag him through his vomit, he knows it's because they don't want the hassle of cleaning the trail or his cell later. He lets them drag him, not bothering to help as his body expands and contracts painfully to bring life back.
They drop him once they enter his cell, and quickly remove the restraints before leaving. He vaguely hears something about them complaining about his mess, but he doesn't give it much though as he reacquaints himself with the taste of air.
He rearranges himself so he's on his back instead of his stomach, relieving some of the pressure on his chest. He notices Caroline for the first time; before his brain only focused on the pain.
She stares at him with wide blue eyes, he can see her replaying the scene over and over in her mind. He has a feeling that she has drowned before, based on her empathetic response.
His throat is dry and sore from fighting the water, he coughs a little and she jumps. She slowly stands, on shaky legs, and leaves the room for a moment. She returns with a small serving of blood, and he feels his face change on it's own accord. She sticks her hand in between the bars and rests the cup as close to him as she can get, usually he would argue and explain to her he could kill her or he would scare her. But he's too weak, in all his years here, not once have they temporarily killed him.
The blood brings immediate relief, and he moves to a sitting position before finishing it. Although weak, he feels tremendously better, feeling this will be a faster experiment to heal from compared to his open heart surgery.
Dr. Whitmore walks in, and he begins telling Caroline the progress they made today. When the cup is empty of all traces of blood he throws it, hitting Whitmore directly in the chest. Whitmore takes a little step back to regain his balance, the cup was thrown with his greatest strength, which he gets after feeding.
Whitmore's usually apathetic face contorts with rage, but it is gone as soon as it came. He readjusts his glasses and says with a sigh, "The mental stress it underwent today was probably equal to the psychical stress. But we will never know, the vampire's mental state is a mystery." Whitmore speculates before leaving.
He smirks, noting that Whitmore's gait is more tense as he leaves than when he entered.
The room loses some of it's tension the moment Whitmore leaves, what remains is a combination of his hatred for this place and the pretty blonde girl who is still carrying today's earlier events with her.
Caroline tilts her head forward and focuses on his notes, something he's grateful for. Usually he looks forward to talking to her, it's challenging and a wonderful change to the usual silence, but right now he just wants to heal.
After a few minutes of listening to Caroline's pen scratch against the paper, his heartbeat has begun to smooth out into a strong steady rhythm, contrasting to the earlier strenuous, panicked beat of his organ. What pleases him most in this moment is the way his lungs expand, full of air, and then contract as the air leaves him. Such a simple act as breathing had brought a new appreciation for the air he used to take for granted.
"How are you doing?" She suddenly ask. Not that he should have been surprised, the pen stopped it's furious scrapping against the paper and she's not one for long periods of silence.
He brushes her concern aside, "To be honest, gorgeous, I am tortured everyday. I have people cut into me, day after day. I'm starved. The closest thing I get to sunshine, is your hair. Tell me something else, anything." He says, wanting to take his mind off of his captivity, even for just a moment.
Caroline takes a deep breath, he closes his eyes and listens to the way her lungs expand before the air is let out. "The day I got my acceptance letter. I was so excited," He smiles slightly, closing his eyes as he imagines her unadulterated joy, "I told my parents, they shared a look and then sat me down to change my life. They told me about vampires." She lets out a small laugh.
He opens his heavy eyelids and focuses his brown eyes on her. Her sky blue eyes are looking at him, but they are focused on the memory she is in.
"Little did I know they were telling the truth. They told me about a special internship with Dr. Whitmore, to prepare me for when they can no longer protect the town. My mother gave me a crash course about vampire, telling me that they are emotionless creatures that kill for pleasure. I came here, utterly terrified, I've only known about vampires for three months previously to meeting one." She pauses, her blue eyes focusing on him, "Then I met you. And now I don't know what to think." She says.
He doesn't want to touch that topic, it would be better for her health to think like her parents, even if they are wrong. Instead he smirks, "I didn't know about vampires until I became one."
He can see the curiosity in her eyes, anticipating the question before it comes, "What happened?" She breathes, sitting on the edge of her seat in curiosity.
He moves slightly, so his body is facing hers, she needs to understand what he is. "I died of consumption on a ship headed towards America from England. When my eyes opened I found everyone slaughtered except one man, the man was a Doctor. He failed me, and then I found him bleeding. It awoke a hunger in me that I have never felt before, I did the unthinkable and drank his blood." He pauses, watching her face.
In this moment he is grateful that she wears her heart on her sleeve, because he can see the disgust and fear written on her face, but it's clear that she is sitting here with an open mind, free of judgment, as he tells her about the beginnings of the monster he is. He wishes she would just fear and hate him, see him as a monster, because anything else will be ruined when she finds out the true darkness he holds.
He continues, "Fangs priced through my gums and looked up and found black eyes, revealing the black soul within, and gray veins protruding underneath the eyes, and blood dripping down the face. A monster stood where my reflection should have been. I escaped the boat before anyone found me, learning about vampires as I became one." This was the beginning of his life as a vampire.
She opens her mouth, but he speaks before she could dig deeper, "It's getting late, we both need our rest." He states, pulling back within himself.
Caroline snaps her mouth shut with an audible click, and nods. She stands and gives him a smile, "Good night." She says before leaving. She looks over her shoulder before knocking on the door, he doesn't move from his position against the wall as he enjoys the air that fills and leaves his lungs; much better that the water that occupied them earlier.
Billy opens the door and Caroline shuts the lights off before the door is closed and locked behind her.
He closes his eyes, he told her something that few know about him. He's getting to close to her, and allowing her to get to close to him. He sighs, knowing it's wrong no matter how good the connection feels.
A/N I hope this story is not too boring. I know it's taking a while to pick up, but I don't want to rush anything. One more note, I have never drowned, so I do know what it's like. If you have any recommendations regarding that area, please let me know. As always, thank you for reading!
Loveklaroline: I hope I was able to add to Paul in this chapter. I'm glad you love Caroline, I'm trying to make her like pre-vampire Caroline where is is insecure and vain, not that she still isn't, but vampire Caroline is more confident with who she is. If I ever stray from Caroline, please let me know. I'm not going to reveal who it is before Caroline finds out, so I neither confirm nor deny your guess. Thank you so much! School is going well! I've decided to promise this, I will finish this story and/or Somebody Catch My Breath, I'm a Goner before starting a new story, but thank you so much for reading what I write. You are the best! Have a great week! Until next time!