I've Got a Nice Big Vampire Problem

It looked like a battlefield. It was a huge dirt room with no furniture in it. The dirt was stained a deep red. Bones lay strewn about on the floor. Human bones. Something that was unmistakably a skull was stuck in the wall by its teeth.

My hands flew up to cover my eyes instinctively. I heard Percy inhale and exhale deeply. "Smells wonderful, don't you think?"

There were no words to describe my horror. That skull could be Mackenzie. Percy did say I would see her soon. Would he be so sick as to imply that this skull was my best friend? Of course he would, why would I even ask?

Percy distracted me by grabbing my waist and plowing me through the room. I tried my best to ignore the sickening crunches under my feet as we crossed the room.

"Put your hands down," Percy ordered.

I shook my head. I noticed a horrid stink drift through the air towards me.

"Put your hands down now, or I'll bite your friend."

My hands left my face and went to my sides. Mackenzie would have to be alive for Percy to bite her. With my fists clenched, I took in my surroundings. We were just exiting a tunnel leading away from that disgusting room. In front of me a huge hall carved out of the dirt. A big table sat on a dirt platform, ten chairs on each side, and a bigger chair at the end.

Torches that had been tied to the wall brightened up the room, which was the only reason I could see.

Ten vampires stood in non specific spots, spread out in the hall. Three were female, the rest were male. They looked like normal human beings, all except their demeanor. Something about them was off, like they all had something they weren't supposed to.

None of them were moving, just standing very still and staring at me.

Silence.

"Is that her?" I couldn't tell which one had said it, so I ignored them and looked around. There were five tunnels leading out of the hall, two of them had makeshift steel doors covering the entrances.

"Yes it is," Percy said. He started to drag me toward the hallway with the steel door closest to us. I noticed all the vampires tense and edge forward.

"Well, can I bite her?" It was the same voice as before. This time I caught who had said it. It was an athletic male with tan skin and dark eyes. He was looking at me in a way that a cat would look at a mouse.

"No, you'd finish her off," Percy said. We were almost at the door.

"Would you listen to that heart," another one of the vampires said. It was male. "It's pounding like a stampede," he growled. I could hear the disgusting desire in his voice.

Percy ignored that man. "Marcus!" He snapped. We had reached the door. A teenage boy, only about fifteen, stepped out of the shadows. He looked quite intimidated. "Go message the others. We've got her." The boy disappeared.

Suddenly, without warning, I became brave.

"Where is Mackenzie?" I snapped. Percy ignored me too. He opened the door and pushed me through, his body pressing a little too close to mine. I rushed forward in the dim hallway so he wouldn't touch me.

A terrible snarl echoed from the room at the end of the tunnel, a strangled roar following it. The roar turned into a tortured wail.

What was that? The voice was too deep to be Mackenzie. Another vampire perhaps? But it sounded like he was being tortured. Had some of Lysias' clan taken to torturing their own? Were they really that sick? Would I be that sick when I became a vampire?

I didn't realize I had stopped walking until Percy pushed me. I fell on my stomach. As quick as I could I scrambled up and continued down the tunnel. Another roar screamed through me, sending shivers down my spine. Whatever it was that was making that noise was in a hell of a lot of agony.

Two vampires entered the tunnel, walking towards us. One had a big log of meat, the other a long poker. They were both gigantic, a little bit bigger than Conan. Their muscles were almost disgustingly big. They wore black muscle shirts and ripped jeans. They looked like twins. One smirked at me; the other gave me a wink. My stomach turned. Why were they carrying a big chunk of meat?

The first thing I saw when I walked into the room was two cages. One cage was pure steel on three sides, with glass on the side that faced into the room. The other was a rusted metal cage, only four feet high and about ten feet wide. The bars were all an inch thick, spaced in even squares. There was a big hole in the bars that had never been fixed, big enough for a small human, such as me, to fit through.

The roaring became horrendous. I plugged my ears, wondering where the noise was coming from. I couldn't really see in the steel cage. In the rusted cage; there was nothing threatening in there. But there was something in there.

In the rusted metal cage a girl sat crunched into the corner, her head between her knees and hands over her head.

Mackenzie.

The insane noise that seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere meant nothing now. Mackenzie was alive.

"MACKENZIE!"

The shove I got from Percy to direct me to the cage was unneeded. I was already scrambling towards it. Mackenzie didn't change her position, only started to rock herself. I wondered if she hadn't heard me. The roaring had become desperate.

"KENZIE!" I threw myself against the cage. I grabbed onto the bars and tried to yank them apart. Mackenzie lifted her head.

"ABBY!" Though I could barely hear her, I knew she was screaming. She threw herself across the cage, her face looking relieved and horrified at the same time. Before she could reach me Percy grabbed my hair and tugged me back. I yelped in pain. The roars of agony reached their peak as Percy dragged me through the hole of Mackenzie's cage by my hair.

The moment he let go I struggled to make my way to Mackenzie on my hands and knees. The tears in my eyes making it hard to see, and I couldn't stand because the cage was so short.

The moment Mackenzie and I met were we hugging each other we both couldn't breathe. Clutching her tightly to my chest, I could feel her shuddering sobs racking through her. She was sobbing almost incomprehensible phrases into my ear.

"I – I thought – gunna die here...so c-cru-cruel. Th-thought you dead..."

She inhaled thickly as my eyes clouded over with tears. I ran my hand over her now shoulder-length choppy hair.

"So'k Kenzie," I said through my own tears. "We're going to be okay. People are coming to get us."

Her sobbing continued. The roaring was slightly calmer now, but it was still crazy. "Th-they th-th-threatened to-to kill me!" She cried.

I listened to her raving for two minutes more, comforting her all the while. Finally she let go of me and sat back on the ground. With a few deep breaths she calmed herself.

There were so many questions I had to ask her, but one stood out only because it was terribly distracting.

"Mackenzie, what is that awful roaring sound?"