There's blood and stuff.

‘She’s coming, she’s coming, she’s coming,’ wouldn’t stop running through my head. Who’s coming? Visitor’s mother. She was here seconds before Eva showed up, threw me into the wall, and left. I knew she was coming back. And then she did. She hit the back of Eva’s head and then covered my mouth with something. It smelled kind of… sweet? I tried to struggle but she was much stranger than me. Minutes later I started to feel sleepy. Very sleepy. I closed my eyes and just drifted away.

---

I woke up in a dark room chained to a wall. This seemed to be a constant in my life now. I looked around and saw Eva, she was still slumped against the wall, dried blood in her hair. The vampire must have hit her hard. I closed my eyes and leaned back. My head was in so much pain. It seemed like there was a jackhammer pounding my skull. I was also a little dizzy, though that could have come from the headache. I wanted to throw up. Wait… these are the side effects of… chloroform. Right? CHCl3? At least that’s what they taught us at school. I question the curriculum of my school. I opened my eyes when I heard a groan. Eva was stirring. She scrunched up her face and shivered. Only then it occurred to me she was wearing a loose t-shirt and some shorts. She must have been getting ready for bed. She must have been cold in the cell. I had a long sleeved shirt and long pants so it wasn’t so bad for me and I also had a high tolerance to the cold.

“Any idea where we are?” Eva croaked. I blinked at her. Then I threw up. It was mostly bile since I hadn’t eaten anything since lunch yesterday? Or was it still today? Or was it last week? It couldn’t have been long. At most? 45 minutes. At least? 20. Our wounds still looked fresh (or at least Eva’s did. I couldn’t see mine) and it takes at least 20 minutes to recover from chloroform.

“Probably still in Victor’s mansion? I was out for at least 20 minutes, at most 45 so I don’t think that she could get us much further than somewhere outside of the mansion. But then again you shouldn't underestimate a vampire…,” I answered. I could practically see Eva thinking before she answered.

“Sounds reasonable, do you think someone’ll come for us? Do you think Victor’ll care enough?” she asked.

“Apart from the mother person- er vampire? Nah. Not until morning at least. That Victor dude seems to care a little about us at least because as his mother said… well. I’m pretty sure no one wants to sit through that again, but you get the idea,” I responded. Eva snorted or laughed. Then winced.

“Well we have approximately 10-12 hours then. What do you think she’ll do to us?” Eva asked. She was really asking a ton of questions. Like I had the answers. What a joke.

“Well, you won’t have to wait much longer to find out,” a sweet, honeyed voice dripped from the mouth of a monster. Or more accurately, Victor’s mother. “I noticed you call my son ‘Victor’ instead of ‘master’ like you should. He really has been slacking on discipline hasn’t he? I suppose I’ll have to pick up where he left off then, won’t I?” She seemed absolutely delighted at the prospect. We, Eva and I, shared a look of panic. The vampire in the room took out a dagger. She pressed it to Eva’s arm. Eva swallowed thickly. The vampire smiled.

“You only called him ‘Victor’ once so I’ll only cut you a dozen times initially,” she stated. Eva opened her mouth to say something but the vampire pressed the dagger deeper into the skin, cutting it. Then she flicked the blade so that it pushed further into the cut. She pulled the blade slowly from the initial cut and then pressed it in again. This process was repeated until there was a swirl cut into Eva’s arm. Just looking at the cut made me sob and my vision got blurry. But to Eva’s credit she still hadn’t made a sound past a startled gasp when the first cut was made. Tears were running down her face freely though. They mixed with the blood from the cut and turned to the blood a lighter red. Her white t-shirt was stained. The blood seeped through the fabric and I could see the stains the blood left on her skin. The blood dripped slowly to the ground. Ever so slowly the puddle grew, until it was the size of a dime. Tennis ball. Pizza. I looked away.

A scream. A glance in Eva’s direction. The vampire had made another cut, this one connected to the last. She skillfully twisted the blade and made flower patterns, swirls, curls, leaves. Eva was sobbing loudly. The calm, collected girl I had seen so many times was gone. She let out blood curdling screams that made me scream as well. I wanted it to stop. The blood. The pain. All of it. But I had to admit. The pattern was… beautiful. Eva’s shoulders were shaking as the vampire moved on to the next arm. That was when I noticed the pattern. It was roses. The skin had come off completely in some places, dangling from the wound or falling to the ground. The puddle of blood was huge. Too big. Eva wouldn’t survive this unless she got treatment soon. Really soon. The other arm was violets. The flowers curled up her arm. The red made it seem like art. Wait… It was like the vampire was sculpting Eva. And I was next. That thought alone sent me off the edge. My mind blurred and I couldn’t remember much after that.

Blood.

Screaming.

Pain.

Cuts.

So much pain.

Screaming.

Light.

A voice. Deep.

Black.

Soft.

Pain.

Light.

Pain, then a prick. Darkness consumes me.

A whimper. Mine, I think. Sweet words. A hand in my hair. A sigh. Relaxing.

Light. Too bright. More words. Softly whispered. Died, her too, so close, help. Sleep. Natural Sleep.

---

I opened my eyes. I was in a room full of white. I blinked and shifted. Pain shot through my arms. I hissed and looked at my body. I seemed fine everywhere but my arms. They were bandaged in clean, crisp, white gauze. The absence of blood surprised me. A voice coming from somewhere outside of the room.

“Master, is she awake yet? What’s going to happen to her?” a worried, frantic voice. Who did it belong to?

“Don’t work, she'll be fine. Come. I’ll show you,” a deep voice answered. Victor’s? Moments later Gérald and Victor entered the room.

“Sharla’s awake!” Gérald exclaimed.

“Yes,” mused Victor and took his hand from the back of Gérald’s neck. Gérald ran forward and sat on the edge of the bed I was in. He was smiling.

“I thought you were going to die,” he pouted. He seemed… different? He seemed to care a little too much. It was probably nothing. I waved it off as a fragment of my imagination. “Are you okay? Does it hurt? You’ve been out for 5 days! 5 whole days? Are you sure you’re okay? Do you need anything? Food? Water? Another blanket? A pillow?” he was talking so fast I could barely comprehend what he was saying, let alone answer. When he finally took a breath I answered him.

“I’m fine. What about Eva?”

“Eva’s already awake, she woke up 2 days ago. You were taking so long. We were so worried.” Victor was standing against the doorframe and had a slight smile as he looked at Gérald’s over eagerness. I didn’t think twice about this.

“What happened? How did I get here?” I asked. I was confused.

“Well from what Eva told us you seemed to just lose your will to live? You slumped down against the wall and sobbed. When master’s mother went over to you and carved lavender and tulip flowers into your arms you just took it. Screamed the first few cuts but that’s it. Master’s mother took so long cutting you two that it took her 6 hours to finish all the cuts. Master got hungry in the night since he didn’t eat dinner with his mother so he went off to our rooms. He noticed a little blood on the floor and followed it. He found his mother putting the finishing touches on the cuts and stopped her. You’ll have terrible scarring on your arms but that’s really it,” he explained. After he was done Victor stepped forward. He took my chin in his hand and looked me straight in the eyes.

“What made you think that if your first escape plan failed the second wouldn’t as well?” he asked me. He seemed so calm. How did he find out about the plan? How does he always find out about everything?

“I know you know what I’m talking about. The first time it was Charlie. He was working for me the whole time. This time it was Gérald. He was good and told me of my pets’ plan to escape. I was going to punish every single one of you but it seems like that’ll have to wait. I’m not a complete monster. I won’t attack someone wounded. But once you heal, you will be punished, do you understand?” I looked at Gérald. He betrayed us. He seemed guilty about it because his shoulders were hunched and he wouldn’t look at me. I said nothing and they left. Gérald still wouldn’t look at me. I wanted to cry. I knew that it would take approximately 3 months for the wounds to heal if I was anywhere else but here, it might take another week at most. I was in for a very painful time.