Being staked actually wasn't all that bad at first.
There was the cold. The stillness. The stifling helplessness. But no pain. For that, Claire was grateful.
After the initial fire ripping through her torso, Claire had gone completely numb. Sensation became muted. Touch, sight, taste, all coyed and cloudy, all except for sound. Sound was mercilessly detailed in comparison to her other deadened senses, and song drifting through the air, horrible and alluring. She felt, in that moment, that if she could get just a little bit closer, hear a little bit harder, she would be able to make out the words of song.
Time passed. Seconds melted into hours. Hours became days. She started to feel the pull of the void Myrnin had saved her from. She became aware of song fading into the distance. She missed it. It kept her company in the weeks she'd been gone. Claire's mind was in the place the eye did not see. She was in the place the eye did not want to see. Would she ever awaken? Had there ever been a time when she had been awake? She couldn't remember anymore.
It was after the first couple months that the voices started.
Ash in the wind. Some said. You are but ash in the wind.
You'll never leave. Some taunted. You will stay here with us. Forever.
Myrnin will come. One said.
Yesss! Others echoed. The creator will come!
Call to him. Sing in his blood. He will come.
Call him, dear one. Bring him to us.
Call him!
Call him!
Call him!
She was lost in the darkness.
. . . . .
Years. It had to have been years later when the stake was finally, finally removed. And. . .Oh! There was the pain she had been expecting. Delightful, horrable, wonderful pain. A break in the voices and the darkness and the emptiness. She gasped as the void reluctantly withdrew from her, leaving no trace of it's murky tendrils. Sight returned in a rush, and then sound, mercifully free of song, and touch, and. . .oh! Oh, dear god. What was that taste?
It glowed. She glowed. There were no words. She didn't even try. Couldn't try. She held warmth in her hand, and was drinking it down greedily. The warmth spread, first to her throat and then to her torso, through her bleeding heart and chest cavity. It healed and gave life. And then it was gone.
Claire's eyes snapped open and she gave a desperate grab at the still bleeding wrist before she came back to herself and realized, suddenly, that this was Shane. Oh, god. This was Shane's blood she sipping, Shane's life she was draining. She dropped out of the defensive, greedy crouch she had sunk into and fell back to the pavement, staring with horror at the bloody, bleeding arm Shane clutched, wrapping with torn up strips of cloth in a detached, almost medical manner. Much too calm.
He didn't look up, but answered her silent question. "It seemed the least I could do, considering." He gestured to the wooden stake lying a few feet away, dripping with black blood. A shudder passed through Claire.
"Why?" She asked.
He blinked at her. "Why what?"
"Why," She said, "Did you stake me?"
"Oh." Shane cleared his throat
" well , why " claire was getting annyoyed now
" I CANT SATND YOU LIKE THIS , knowing , knowing that you two are in-love , or that he's been biting , he doesnt love you , he just wants you for your blood and now it looks like your fresh out of that".
"so , this whole thing is about me being with Myrnin now , after you broke my heart , saying i was cheating , and now cos you cant stand that im happy being a vampire being with myrnin you want to take it all away , well arn't ypu sad" claire got up agryly chucking the stake away
, as she walked away , to home not to the glass house , but to the lab , to myrnin , her one true love that can accept her for her , and only her.