Elena.

I watch in horror as Molly came downstairs and approached me. She did so quietly and obediently but her eyes, unmasked her fear. Leverett was no longer in my view, so I tried to stand up from the couch only to feel two strong hands push me back down by my shoulders.
“
"No.” He said sharply. Molly was now kneeling by the couch. I cringed away from her with the small space I had left. As I did so, i watch in horror at the color my arms now where. They were pale, but many, many, small, black lines now traced under my skin. They were my veins, and they shown prominently through my lucid pale skin. Molly outstretched her arm and gave me a small, weak, smile. The smell of her blood just radiated from her now, all of my senses sharpening. I could hear the fast beating of her heart and mine.

Leverett lifted me up by my arms to set me up in a sitting position. No one in the room spoke, not even Leverett, to try to convince me. He knew I didn't’t need convincing with words anymore, the alluring smell was enough now. I closed my eyes, and with the last energy I had left, I grasped her wrist with both my hands, broke her skin, and drank her blood.

My mind went blank, I don’t know for how long this was for, or what happened as soon as the first drop of her blood touched my lips. What snapped me back to reality was a pair of strong hands pulling me by the waist while the other hand pulled Molly’s arm away from me. I couldn’t let go, but as soon as I’d opened my eyes again and saw the blank expression on her face, I did.

I put my hand up to my mouth, ashamed and fully regretful of what I’d just done. Molly laid limply on the floor now, her upper body on my legs. Leverett came around me and picked up Molly’s limp body from my side. His face was completely normal now, all trace of it being burnt and charred only a memory in my mind.

She was still alive, I knew, because I focused on listening for her heartbeat, and successfully did. I took my hand away from my mouth now and glanced at it and my arms. Now only a faint trace of my veins was visible.

He came back downstairs, his jaw clenched as he looked at me, rather emotionless.

“She will be fine,” he said a little distantly, looking down for a moment. When he looked up at me once more, his expression changed from having an almost kind expression to an aggravated one. He walked back to his study, passed me still sitting on the couch, to stop at the doorway. Seeming to regret it, he went in and closed the door behind him, leaving me alone in the living room.

I was no longer weak, so I sat up and combed my fingers through my hair, not sure what color it was now. Glancing over at his study door, I heard shuffling of papers. I realized then that the lack and the new presence of human blood in my system had sharpened my senses, because I couldn’t have heard that now if I was human.

I started to go upstairs to my room, if I could be able to find it from the hundreds of doors that awaited me upstairs, but I interrupted my actions. Leverett had just said my name, in a whisper it seemed. I didn’t know if I was meant to have heard that, so I waited for some sort of sign. He repeated it this time, clearly. I turned around to see Leverett in the doorway.

Yes?” I said, trying to read his expression, with no success.

“…It wasn’t-your fault.” He said. I started going downstairs again, and nodded meekly. He nodded as well, unsure of what to say, so I said something else.

“Molly means a lot to you, so thank you for willing to-“

“-It’s not like I had a choice.” He replied rather rudely. I bit my lip trying to suppress the angry words I wanted to spill out to him right now at his sudden rude burst.

“I have some books in my study that you might like.” Leverett said, easing his tone but not changing it. I hesitantly walked back to his study.

After skimming through some leather-bound books that seemed remarkably old but interesting, I randomly selected one that was on the highest shelf. Leverett by now was back to his desk, looking through some papers whose contents were unknown to me. He looked up occasionally to tell me if he had liked the book or not.

“I actually haven’t read that one.” He said when he saw the one I was holding now. I asked him if he wanted me to leave it in his study, but he shook his head. So I started to leave the study with the book. Leaving, this time, hopefully, by my own accord.

“So we both know what it is about,” Leverett began, his eyes mysteriously glistening against the artificial light, “why don’t you read it to me out loud, while I look through these papers?” His tone was not angry for the first time I’d been here, but the way he said it sounded as if he was talking about a business transaction since he had seemed to have chosen his words so carefully.

“Won’t you get distracted?” I asked. He shrugged.

“That’ll be for me to worry about.” Leverett said, looking back down to his papers and motioning for me to sit in the leather chair he’d been sitting in when I’d first met him, so this time, the chair forced me to face him while he sat at his desk. I cleared my throat quietly, opened the cover to the first page and began to read.