Claire

Claire woke alone again, feeling worse than before, except this time she had food in her stomach. It didn't take long for Claire to spill the contents of her stomach. Quite a few times within the hour, until her stomach was once again, empty. Brandon showed up again, "Well, what a waste. I guess there's no use in feeding you, seeing as how no matter what, you don't seem to except it." he sighed and walked toward her, grabbing her jaw in his fingers, peering rather creepily into her eyes.

"Claire," he sighed again, "what am I going to do with you? I've tried to be good to you, but you've been ungrateful to me. It pains me, Claire."

"Good?" Claire spat in disbelief, "You're torturing me! You kidnapped me, you beat me, you tied me up, you made me eat the most disgusting thing I've ever had in my life and you're drinking me like a juicebox! This is what you call 'good'?"

"Dear, Claire. Don't you understand? This isn't about you. You're being so selfish. This is about your boyfriend—"

"Shane did nothing wrong! He didn't try to kill you! It was all his dad—"

Claire was silenced by a crack, immediately followed by an intense throbbing in the back of her skull, when she realized Brandon had smashed her head against the wall, "Enough!" he shouted, walking away and dissapearing again.

Claire was a bit delirious and confused, but she knew somehow she had to get out of there. She began to desperately struggle against her restraints again, not entirely aware of her doings, and felt the resistance in Amelie's bracelet against whatever it was cutting into her, and she realized how stupid she'd been.

The bracelet.

Now all Claire had to do was figure out how to get her blood onto a bracelet when she couldn't tilt her arm down to do it. She struggled once more until she was sure she had gotten enough blood on the rope and pressed the bracelet against it, praying it would work.

Shane

"What? How?" I asked in disbelief.

"She's remembered. Her blood has gotten into the bracelet, but not much. I can sense her weakness and illness in it. We must get to her fast. I also sense another vampire, bring whatever weapons you have, I give you permission to kill whoever it is, given that I will if you don't."

We all grabbed our weapons bag and went with Amelie to get our Claire.

It was a place I'd never seen before, which was saying something. It was disgusting, though. Looked like a dumping ground.

"She's in here?" I asked in disgust. Amelie said she could sense Claire's illness. Of course a place like this would make her sick.

"Underground." Amelie answered shortly.

She led us though some hole that went underground. Distantly I could hear coughing and whimpering.

Claire!

Michael put a hand on my shoulder, seeming to know what I'd do. There was sadness in his eyes and I knew he was hearing much more than I was. Amelie raced on ahead of us and we jumped into a run.

I heard more whimpering and looked over to the far wall to see my Claire

Oh God, no.

She was pinned up by her hands, just dandgling, her feet barely touching the ground. I could see the new and dried blood running down her arms and four new holes in her neck.

"Brandon," Amelie hissed.

The bastard.

Wait, I was almost executed for Brandon's murder.

"It must have been a hoax." Amelie mumbled, as if reading my mind.

I refocused my attention to Claire. She was deadly pale, her head sagging forward. Blood was matting her hair and bruises were forming on her face and body and I could already see she'd lost weight. Michael, Eve and I ran to her, Eve undoing her ankles and Michael undoing her hands. I waited to catch her in my arms.

Michael undid the last knot and she totally collapsed. I caught her and held to me desperately. She moaned, "Shane?" I could barely hear it and she was right next to my ear, "I'm here, baby. I'm right here."

I stroked her hair, but froze as she weakly asked, "Are we home yet? Am I home?"

I looked at Eve and Michael, startled, while their eyes just showed sadness. Michael showed me the rope that was around her wrists to reveal nails on the inside of it. I glanced down at her wrists to see all the cuts I hadn't noticed before, proving how much she'd struggled.

"Yeah, Claire. We're home."

"It's dark." She whimpered and for the first time in while, I thought I would cry, "Yeah, it's getting late. You should get some sleep."

"'Kay." She said and slumped against me.

Amelie spoke next, "Leave me. He's not dead yet and I doubt you want to see the dramatics of the hunt. Go. Take her to safety. Keep her well pprotected until he's been found. I have no doubt he will try to attack her again."

I picked Claire up and we took her to the hospital. As we were leaving, I pictured what Amelie had described and shuttered as we picked up our pace.

Hey! Sorry it's late! So I would have made a little (A/N) sooner buuut, me being the doofus I am, kept forgetting until after I uploaded. Don't smack me, I've already done that :P well, tell me what you think! updates are on Mondays! (Unless I forget again... sorry :P)