Content Warning: Non-consensual medical procedures and forced pregnancy.

LIII. The Human, the Dhamphyr, and the Wardrobe

I don't recall much of what came next.

Flashes of images―bright, piercing lights that burned my retinas; blotches of darkness; a wooden ceiling; curious green eyes.

Impressions against my skin―cold, metal, piercing, cutting; soft sheets; warm hands and fingers prodding, pressing.

But darkness persisted across my vision, dragging me back under its veil, its grip unending and merciless.

When I finally came to, my throat was parched, tongue dry like my mouth had been stuffed with a mound of cotton balls.

"Here, drink this."

A straw pressed against my lips and I greedily inhaled its contents.

Whatever it was, it was soothing to my dry throat; warm and sweet.

My eyes adjusted to the bright light, and I found Serena sitting at my bedside.

"Serena?" I croaked, pressing a palm against the patch of soft gauze just above my eyebrow. "Where am I? What happened?"

She didn't answer my questions. "How are you feeling?"

"Um, shouldn't a doctor be asking me that?"

My joke fell flat.

That's when I realized I wasn't even in a hospital. Instead, I was in a bedroom with walls of light cedar wood, filled with rustic furniture, where I rested under a pile of soft cotton sheets. To my right was the source of bright light―a vast window framed with matching curtains, the blinds completely drawn up to welcome in streams of morning sunlight.

To my left was Serena, sitting in an old chair, a clipboard resting on her lap.

"Think of me as your doctor," she suggested, smiling gently.

I tried to sit up, but a wave of fatigue hit me. Whatever drugs had been pumped into my system remained, keeping me a prisoner in bed.

"Explain," I hissed, just barely overcoming the wave of black that threatened to engulf my vision.

Serena's expression softened with sympathy. "I'm sorry, Isabella. There's a lot I haven't told you. But if it'll be of any comfort to you, I'll explain."

I waited, face frozen into an icy glower.

"I've chosen you to be my next test subject," she stated simply. "You see, my father Joham―"

Something dark clenched painfully in my chest, heartbeat thumping so loud in my ears I could barely process what she said next.

"―has, in the last few decades, taken an interest in artificial insemination."

Numbly, I realized, "You want to siphon me with his sperm."

Serena appeared startled by my swift conclusion. "Well, yes. In fact, I already have."

The numbness gave over to hysteria, fear choking the breath from my lungs with crushing intensity. "No," I gasped. "No. No, you can't have―"

"It's okay, Isabella!" Serena prattled, gesturing towards her clipboard. "I've just about perfected the procedure. Nothing will go wrong. In the end, you will provide me with another sister. I can practically guarantee it."

"No!" I screamed, stumbling out of bed. "You're fucking insane! Get this thing out of me, or I swear to God―"

Something thin and cold pierced my arm.

The chair was empty, and Serena now stood on my other side, bearing my weight.

"I like you, Isabella," she admitted frostily, gently pushing me back into bed, "but if you continue to endanger the health of my sibling, I'm afraid we can no longer be friends."

"You bitch," I mumbled, before darkness swallowed my vision once more.

The next time I awoke, it was nighttime. A tall lamp glowed warmly in one corner of the room. I was alone.

I pushed myself up with a shaky hand and tried to regain my bearings. My head throbbed, an acute pressure pounding against my skull. My body felt tender, like it was one giant bruise, and my mouth was unbearably dry.

I found the lidded cup on the nightstand and reached for it, before recalling that it wasn't water.

I tried to swallow, but couldn't, remembering its sweet, soothing taste. I wrenched my hand back, turning away with a look of disgust.

Instead, I stumbled to my feet beside the window. The blinds had been pulled down and the curtains completely drawn. I pulled them back and peeked outside between the blinds, but all I found was a void of darkness. I could see nothing.

"We're miles from civilization."

I jumped and shot Serena a glare over my shoulder.

"You could try to run, but it would be of no use," she continued, leaning casually against the doorframe. An empty one, which contained no door.

I ignored her and turned to the wardrobe across from the bed. Inside, I found old, musty clothes that hadn't seen the light of day in a long time.

"…I assumed you would have questions," Serena said.

I ground my teeth, nails digging into one of the coats I'd been looking over, eyes suddenly thick with unshed tears, and the feeling of defeat settling heavy in my chest.

"What does it matter?" I whispered.

Behind me, her voice grew closer. "Because I like you, Isabella. And if I can make this easier for you, then I would like to. You're a bright girl, so I'm sure you've figured it out. My father's experiments―they have a hundred percent mortality rate."

"No…" I gasped quietly, suddenly recalling Alice's vision. She had been so sure―I would be a vampire.

Her blind spots hadn't been caused by the wolves. They had been caused by Serena.

A sudden flare of hope rose quickly in me, pushing back against the weight on my shoulders and leaving me light on my feet.

Somehow, I would survive this.

"It's true," Serena was saying. "No child bearer has ever survived this procedure."

Quickly, I wiped my eyes and cleared my throat. Refusing to show Serena my sudden change in composure, I kept my back to her. "How long has it been since you abducted me?"

"It's been four days."

"And how long since you injected me with this parasite?" I grimaced, fingers curling into a fist against my flat stomach.

"Three days."

"…You're the one who hit my car," I realized. She was half-vampire. For her, it would've been effortless.

"I did."

"And how did you find me?" Why hadn't Alice seen this?

"It was a coincidence," she admitted. "I was driving, examining the area remotely, when I passed by you on the road. I wasn't sure how often you saw your vampire, so I took advantage right then, and called, trying to steer you outside of town. When I realized you hadn't fallen for my trick, and intended to contact him instead, I got out and knocked you off the road."

I felt sick. Serena's status as a hybrid combined with her indecisiveness is what had defeated Alice's foresight in the end.

I blinked back tears as I tried to recall what little I knew about Serena. I'd had a total of four phone calls with her, none of which revealed much, except for…

"And Angelo?"

"He doesn't exist."

It took me a long moment to process her words.

Angelo…didn't exist?

But why come up with such an elaborate lie? Perhaps in an effort to better relate to me? I supposed that was one way to earn my trust. Even so, it was a disturbing revelation. I'd been so easily fooled.

But, no. Her emotions, her fear was too real to have been faked. But who else…?

Finally, I turned around. Serena sat at the foot of the bed, patiently awaiting my next question. I stared down at her pretty, manicured hands.

"It was Joham who broke your wrist."

Serena's calm facade morphed into an expression of hostility. "I said that was an accident," she said stiffly. "My father thinks of me as his equal. He sometimes forgets that I am not."

"I've never heard of a vampire forgetting anything."

Serena momentarily blurred as she flashed to her feet.

"Drink your blood, Isabella," she said frigidly. "It's the only sustenance you'll be receiving."

In a burst of speed, she was gone.

Ignoring my dry, desiccated mouth, I turned back around, and sifted through the last of the clothes, until I reached the wood of the wardrobe.

For a moment, I couldn't swallow or breathe.

Tears blurred my vision and finally spilled down my cheeks as my fingers traced the tally marks someone had carved into the wood.

The total count was sixteen.

Serena's last victim had lasted sixteen days.

Although my nails became ragged as a result, I was successful in scraping an additional four tallies right below the first set.

The cabin was a tiny, one-bedroom structure. Beside the room was a single bathroom, also without a door, and beyond that, was a small living area combined with an equally small kitchen.

Serena sat with her back to me at a wide desk swamped with piles of paper. Stacks of textbooks precariously lined the edge. I could just make out the titles printed across the spines, revealing subject matters ranging between basic biology, anatomy, and human genetics.

It looked like she was doing…homework?

"Have you drunk your blood?"

I nearly jumped at the sound of her voice and glared at the back of her head. "Who was Lisa?"

"…Why do you ask?"

"Because I'm wearing her sweater."

I gazed down at the driver's license I'd found in the pocket and perched on the edge of the single couch, behind where Serena sat. The picture revealed her to be a pretty redhead. Although I couldn't be sure how old she'd been when she'd died, she'd be as old as Charlie if she were still alive.

Serena sighed and twisted in her chair to look at me. "She was a failed experiment from the 80s."

"A failed experiment," I repeated clumsily, my blood turning to ice.

Serena adjusted her position until she was better facing me. "Yes. After my father failed to find another male vampire to join him in his endeavors, he turned to the latest human discoveries. He figured that if other vampires couldn't demonstrate the same self-control that he had, then perhaps science could help bridge the gap. That's when we began to consider the idea of artificial insemination…"

Numbly, I listened as Serena went on to explain the science, to describe how two different victims she'd chosen had died as a result of her tests. It wasn't until after Serena had reported the second death, that Joham realized their blood likely hadn't been strong enough to sustain his offspring. Centuries ago, he'd noticed that women with more appealing blood were likely to conceive quickly and successfully carry the child to term. In order to reaffirm his theory, he'd selected a victim of his own choosing and fathered a new daughter, Jennifer.

And then, having to raise a new sister had set Serena back years from being able to succeed in her own experimentations.

Eventually, she grew short of words, and I allowed the chilling quiet to linger between us.

"It's okay, Isabella. You're not Lisa. You won't be a failed experiment. Your blood is much stronger than hers."

"No," I agreed in a whisper, still gazing down at the girl with the freckles and the cheerful blue eyes. "I won't be."

Alice had seen that I wouldn't die. Not in any way that counted.

But Serena didn't know that. She didn't know that I would find a way to escape from this cliché of a hellhole. Even if it meant aborting the child from my body.

"Have you drunk your blood?"

"Yes," I lied. "I have."

A/N: The hybrid vampires make for such a good horror story subplot :)

I want to credit silentmayhem, who reached out and shared their ideas with me back when I first published this story! The basic premise they came up with was making Joham and his daughters the antagonists of the story. I loved it and decided to make Serena my main villain. (Victoria's newborn army and the Volturi are overdone, so I was excited to try something different!) Thanks again friend! :)

A special thank you to Raviyoli for beta-reading this chapter! It's a little late in the game, but I'm so happy to have found a beta!

And a shout out to my wonderful reviewers! Love you guys!

Anywho, it's that time of year again, so I'm off to summer camp! Y'all can expect an update in July :)