I contemplated marking this mature or not but decided against it, there is only a little blood and pain.

The growl faded and 5 long, painful, awkward minutes of silence followed, then a crackling could be heard. A man stepped forward. The beast stayed where it was, but it didn’t seem too threatening anymore. After my eyes adjusted I could see that the beast’s eyes didn’t only glow, they seemed milky, as if the beast wasn’t present. Maybe it was blind? I internally snorted. We were stupid to think that this thing was dangeous. The man was speaking.

“We are terribly sorry but my friend thought you were him. We hope we didn’t cause you any fear.”

“Oh, don’t worry, we’re fine. It should be us who apologize to you. We barged into this room like we owned it and it seems like you were here first,” I stepped forward to speak.

“Ha! If only we owned the place. Sadly it’s the opposite. We can’t leave. Or at least we can’t leave while he is alive,” his tone was bitter. Resentful. “But on a happier note, I’m Charlie, and this is my friend, Haven,” the beast slowly moved forward and with every step it slowly made it into the light. Turns out it was just a HUGE dog. A German Shepherd. Just as big as the human.

“Well, I’m Sarah, these are Echo, Danni, Iz, Arch, Gertrude, Tom, Kath, Nate, Gérald, Sharla, Jamie, Eva, and Adam,” I introduced us.

“That’s a lot. Not sure what I’ll remember.”

“Oh, don’t worry, It’s a lot. I know. We can just remind you. But could you tell us why you’re here?” I was the only one speaking to him. That’s fine with me. I was fine with leading.

“Well… It’s kinda a long story. The short version goes like this: we, Haven and I, used to be hunters. That is until we met him. The one keeping us here.” I had a pretty good idea of who ‘he’ was. The vampire. “We tried to kill him. He just laughed. Injured us and dragged us back here. We were then ‘punished’ for fighting back and well… I still have back problems 50 years later. So we can’t attack him. He’s too strong for us two. Every time we do something he doesn’t like he ‘punishes’ us. We ended up just staying in this room, hiding. Well, not hiding exactly. He knows we are here and comes to us when he wants to… feed. We just stay out of his way, away from his rage… and, well. It’s not that bad anymore. He feeds then he leaves us alone. In the beginning he did… unspeakable things to us when he was bored. We get food… sometimes. And there’s a blanket so it’s fine!” Charlie explained. In the beginning he was bitter. Then emotionless. Then happy. Too happy. Fake.

“Oh! That’s terrible! Do you want to come with us? We are going to find a way out and would hate to leave you here with him,” the concern was so fake to my ears. But to everyone else’s it seemed perfectly genuine. I even widened my eyes just the slightest bit to show that it was real concern.

“Are you sure? I won’t slow you down?” he questioned.

‘I’m sure! Plus you won’t slow us down! If anything you will help us! You know more about the design of this place than any of us!” I smiled brightly.

“That’s the thing. This place is alive. It changes to help him and harm us. Honestly we’re lucky to still have this room after so long.”

“Well, then, you know him the best. You have been here the longest!” I tried to make it seem like I wanted him to come along. In reality? I’d let him die the moment he becomes useless.

“Thank you,” he murmured.

I turned to the group. “We need a plan of action. That… vampire was it? Said that he likes to ‘play’ with his food. He will undoubtedly be coming forus soon. And even if he doesn’t he will eventually get hungry and come to… feed… off of Charlie. The house can change so maps won’t work. Any ideas?”

Iz took a deep breath. “Um… m-maybe? What if we- um… we l-let him c-catch us? W-we could let him… um… we could be the p-prey he wants… a-and then we-we could learn some th-things about h-him? May-maybe e-even a weakness or um… th-the place where the we-weapons are h-held? Or the e-escape r-route?” she was trembling by the time she finished speaking. What a weakling. And her stuttering was annoying. But I forced delight.

“That’s a great idea, Iz! But we need to find a way to communicate if he splits us up and from the information we have he won’t kill us, he would much rather keep us for food.” I call her Iz even though I know she prefers Bel because I want to make her doubt herself. It makes her easier to control. And even though she is annoying she IS smart so… she could be useful.

“We could, I don’t know, like, talk in sign language? Do any of you, like, know sign language? Or we could, like, come up with our own sign language?” Dani spoke. She said like a lot. Like, how hard could it be too just, like, not say like all the, like, time? No one said they knew sign language.

So we had a REALLY boring conversation that lasted an hour? There was no real way to tell time in this room. Fist over your heart meant you knew where the weapons were. Giving yourself bunny ears meant you knew where the escape route was. Tongue sticking out meant you knew a weakness. 3 REALLY long blinks meant you knew where the others were being held. Then we came up with a plan:

1. Scatter and wait for him to find us.

2. Do what he says. Earn as much of his trust as possible.

3. Find info.

4. Meet up in the dining room (once we figured out where that was) one a day. At midnight.

Minimalist. I know. But we knew next to nothing. We DID get some info from Charlie. He said that when he first arrived the vampire, or in his words, he, tried to be nice. Now Charlie had realized the MAYBE if he had played along he wouldn’t have to hide from the vampire and would have a semi-okay life. Once you subtracted the fact that he would have his blood out of him in a very painful way every 3 days. That’s how often the vampire liked to feed. Though he only technically needs to feed once a week or two.

We put the plan into action. I’m sure that it would be boring to read about how I crouched in a closet for 30 hours straight so I’ll skip to the fun part.

---

Someone walked in. Not JUST someone. It was him. The vampire. I resisted the urge to snort. I could deal with him. Why had I run before? He COULDN’T be THAT scary. No way.

“I do believe I smelt a nice, young human in here. I REALLY want breakfast. But alas, it seems like I was mistaken,” his voice was deep, and… teasing? As if he knew something I didn’t. People like this annoy me usually. But he scared me. It made me shiver. Now I remember why I ran. If I could run I would do it again. This time faster, or maybe stab myself in the heart. Death seemed SO much better than him. I felt a presence stand in front of the closet I was hiding in. I whimpered. Then I slapped a hand over my mouth. I hoped he didn’t hear it. But how could he NOT? He had superior hearing and even a normal human would have been able to hear me at such a distance.

“Or maybe,” he practically sang. “My breakfast could be hiding. Right here,” he growled the last sentence and slammed the closet door open. The whole thing shook. I was sitting there, among the 20ish trench coats. Who needs that many? I looked up at him. I must have been trembling. How could I have not been? I took a deep breath. A coppery smell hit me. I wanted to gag. He leaned down.

“Such a perfect human. And that smell. I do partially like O+ blood. It tastes so good,” he was now speaking in a gentle, kind tone. His fingertips ghosted over my shoulder and neck. I whimpered again. “Shhhhh. It’s okay. I won’t hurt you. Not purposely. If you're good.” Then his fangs were out. I only saw a flash of pearl white before they were buried in my neck. The pain was sudden. Searing. Mind numbing. It felt as if there was a beast inside me. Ripping me out from the inside out. I was sobbing. My tears were hot on my cheeks. I felt him humming in satisfaction. I went limp. What was the point in struggling? It would just make the pain worse. Then he had had enough. He pulled his fangs out and I slouched against the closet wall.

There were a few drops of blood coming out from the wound and staining my shirt but they soon stopped. The wound was already healing. Basic vampire anatomy. There is a poison thing in the fangs. Kind of like a snake. It was supposed to make the blood flow easier into the vampires mouth. Then seal the cut when the vampire was done drinking. Once the wound had healed the pain had subsided to a dull ache and I came crashing back down to earth. I felt a hand on my cheek. Fingers were brushing my tears away. A soft voice was telling me that I was okay. He was there. Nothing would happen to me.

I felt a few stray tears drop from my eyes and then I stopped crying. I felt weak. Suppose that’s what blood loss does to a person. I felt gentle arms lifting me up. I was carried out of the closet and into a… dining room? I was slumped against his chest. If I had even an ounce of energy left I would have sprung up and gotten as far away from him as possible. I was 13 I didn’t need someone to carry me.

I was set down in a cushioned, carved chair. A glass was brought to my lips. Half-consciously I drank what was inside. I started to feel better soon after. I was confused. The vampire must have seen my confusion because he chuckled. “It’s a tonic to help with the blood loss.”

“Oh… um… th-thank you,” I stuttered. It was the first time we had really spoken.

“No problem. So, human, what is your name?”

“Oh… I-it’s Sarah,” I was starting to sound like Iz. This needed to stop.

“Hm… I don’t like that name. I’ll call you Fiona,” he said. I spluttered. “And, you Fiona, will either call me sir or master, understand.”

“Y-yes,” there was a long pause where he just raised his eyebrows at me. Then I understood. ‘Y-yes, sir,” I corrected myself.

“Good,” he ruffled my hair. Then he clapped his hands. A servant with literally no face stepped forward. They were just wisps of smoke. They set a plate on the table in front of me. I stared at the food for a second. There were fluffy mashed potatoes, green beans and steak. It was very tempting. When I made no move to eat he said, “Eat. It’s all for you.” So I ate. It was amazing.

“Thank you, sir,” I quietly muttered when I was done. He ruffled my hair again.

“Come this way, I need to take you to your room,” he said. Contrary to earlier his voice was soft, king, gentle. If I didn’t know any better he was cooing at me. He stood up and gestured for me to follow. I stood up. My legs trembled a bit but after a moment I was fine. I followed him.

He led me to a good sized room. There was a round, king sized bed in the middle of the room. There was a dresser against one wall. A vanity. A small table on one side. One the table there was a vase of flowers and a tea set. Near the door there was a rope. There were also some book shelves along two of the walls.

“If you need anything please don’t hesitate to pull that rope. I will come see what you need, okay?”

“I- um… yes, sir.”

“Perfect. Farewell,” and with that he was gone. I heard a click and went to check something. Sure enough I was locked in the room. I looked in the dresser and saw a bunch of dresses. But just as many suits. They all had some girly touches. I loved them. I grabbed a dress. Full of ruffles and folds. I loved it. It was a nice midnight blue. I put it on. I brushed my hair and braided, ending the braid with a black ribbon. I slipped on some black shoes and smiled. Twirling around I giggled. I loved to feel pretty. I took out a jewelry box and put on some black earrings and an obsidian necklace. I was dancing around the room and laughing. I imagined that I was at a ball.

Then I remembered the others. I wondered how they were doing when I heard it. A scream. Fearful and desperate. My eyes widened and suddenly the scream was cut off. What could have happened?